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C
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a
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In the Field
This chapter introduces students to the field
methods and research methods employed
by anthropologists. It pays special attention
to the field methods of ethnographers and
archaeologists, to survey research, and to
funding and ethics in anthropology.
2
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Ethnography
Ethnography is the firsthand personal study of a local
cultural setting.
 Ethnographers try to understand the whole of a particular
culture, not just fragments (e.g. the economy).
 In pursuit of this holistic goal, ethnographers usually spend
an extended period of time living with the group they are
studying and employ a series of techniques to gather
information.
 The early ethnographers conducted research almost
exclusively among small-scale, relatively isolated societies,
with simple technologies and economics.

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Participant Observation
Ethnographers are trained to be aware of and record details
from daily events, the significance of which may not be
apparent until much later.
 “Participant observation,” as practiced by ethnographers,
involves the researcher taking part in the activities being
observed.
 Unlike laboratory research, ethnographers do not isolate
variables or attempt to manipulate the outcome of events
they are observing.

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Ethnography
Here, ethnographer
Nadine Peacock
works among the
Efe of Congo.
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Irven DeVore
Anthro-Photo
Conversation and Interviewing
Ethnographic interviews range in formality from undirected
conversation, to open-ended interviews focusing on specific
topics, to formal interviews using a predetermined schedule
of questions.
 Increasingly, more than one of these methods are used to
accomplish complementary ends on a single ethnographic
research project.

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The Genealogical Method
Early anthropologists identified types of relatedness, such as
kinship, descent, and marriage, as being the fundamental
organizing principals of nonindustrial societies.
 The genealogical method of diagramming such kin relations
was developed as a formalized means of comparing kinbased societies.

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Ethnographic Techniques
Key Cultural Consultants are particularly well-informed
members of the culture being studied that can provide the
ethnographer with some of the most useful or complete
information.
 Life histories are intimate and personal collections of a
lifetime of experiences from certain members of the
community being studied.



Life histories reveal how specific people perceive, react to,
and contribute to changes that affect their lives.
Since life histories are focused on how different people
interpret and deal with similar issues, they can be used to
illustrate the diversity within a given community.
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Ethnographic Techniques
Anthropologists such as
Christie Kiefer typically
form personal
relationships with
cultural consultants,
such as this Guatemalan
weaver.
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Photo
Credit:
Peggy /Companies,
Yoran Kahana
Peter
Arnold,
Inc.
Emic vs. Etic

An emic (native-oriented) approach investigates how natives
think, categorize the world, express thoughts, and interpret
stimuli.



Emic means the “native viewpoint”
Key cultural consultants are essential for understanding the
emic perspective.
An etic (science-oriented) approach emphasizes the
categories, interpretations, and features that the
anthropologist considers important.
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The Evolution of Ethnography

Bronislaw Malinowski is generally considered the father of
ethnography.



He did salvage ethnography, recording cultural diversity that
was threatened by westernization.
His ethnographies were scientific accounts of unknown people
and places.
Ethnographic realism


The writer’s goal was to produce an accurate, objective,
scientific account of the study community.
The writer’s authority was rooted in his or her personal
research experience with that community.
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Bronislaw Malinowski
Malinowski believed that all aspects of culture were linked
and intertwined, making it impossible to write about just one
cultural feature without discussing how it relates to others.
 Malinowski argued that understanding the emic perspective,
the native’s point of view, was the primary goal of
ethnography.

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Bronislaw Malinowski
Here, Bronislaw
Malinowski is
seated with villagers
of the Trobriand
Islands.
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Science
London
School Companies,
of Economics
Science
Interpretive Anthropology
Interpretive anthropologist believe that ethnographers
should describe and interpret that which is meaningful to the
natives.
 Geertz argues that cultures are texts that natives constantly
“read” and that ethnographers must decipher.
 Meanings in a given culture are carried by public symbolic
forms, including words, rituals, and customs.

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Experimental Anthropology
Experimental anthropologists, like Marcus and Fischer, have
begun to question the traditional goals, methods, and styles
of ethnographic realism and salvage ethnography.
 Ethnographies should be viewed as both works of art and
works of science.
 The ethnographer functions as the mediator who
communicates information from the natives to the readers.

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Ethnographic Present
The early ethnographies were often written in the
ethnographic present, a romanticized timelessness before
westernization, that gave the ethnographies an eternal,
unchanging quality.
 Today, anthropologists understand that this is an unrealistic
construct that inaccurately portrayed the natives as isolated
and cut off from the rest of the world.
 Ethnographers today recognize that cultures constantly
change and that this quality must be represented in the
ethnography.

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Problem-Oriented Ethnography
Ethnographers typically address a specific problem or set of
problems, within the context of broader depictions of
cultures.
 Variables with the most significant relationship to the
problem being addressed are given priority in the analysis.

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Longitudinal Research
Longitudinal Research is the long-term study of a
community, region, society, or culture based on a series of
repeated visits.
 Longitudinal research has become increasingly common
among ethnographic studies, as repeat visits to field sites
have become easier.
 Such studies may also encompass multiple, related sites.
 Team Research involves a series of ethnographers
conducting complimentary research in a given community,
culture, or region.

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Archaeological Survey
Systematic survey provides a regional perspective on the
archaeological record.
 Survey collects information on settlement patterns (e.g. the
location of cities, towns, villages, and hamlets) over a large
area (e.g. a river valley).
 Survey is one of the ways in which archaeologists locate
sites that might be excavated in the future.
 During a survey, the team records the location, the size, and
the approximate age of the site.

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Settlement Patterns
Settlement patterns are important for making inferences
regarding the social complexity of the prehistoric
communities.
 Groups at lower levels of complexity generally have lower
population densities and people living in small campsites or
hamlets with very little variation in architecture.
 With greater complexity, comes higher population densities
(more people living in the same space) and a variety of sites
organized along a settlement hierarchy (e.g. cities, towns,
villages, and hamlets) with increased architectural variation
between sites.

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Excavation
Excavation compliments the regional survey data with more
fine grained data collected at the level of a specific site.
 The layers or strata that make up a site help archaeologists
establish a relative chronology for the material recovered
(e.g. this pot is older than that pot).



The principle of superposition states that in an undisturbed
sequence of strata, the oldest is on the bottom and each
successive layer above is younger than the one below.
Artifacts from the lower strata are older than artifacts from
higher strata and artifacts from the same strata are roughly the
same age.
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Excavation: Planning
Nobody digs a site without a clear reason, because there are
so many sites and because excavation is so expensive and
labor intensive.
 Cultural Resource Management (CRM) or contract
archaeology is concerned with excavating sites that are
threatened by modern development.
 Most other sites are selected for excavation because they are
well suited to address a series of specific research questions.

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Excavation: Preparation

Before a site is excavated, it is first mapped and surface
collected so that the archaeologist can make an informed
decision about where to dig.


Using the map, the archaeologist lays an arbitrary grid of one
meter squares across the site.
This grid is used to record the location of the surface
collection units as well as the excavation units on the surface
of the site.
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Excavation: Preparation
Archaeologists use
grids, such as this grid
in Teotihuican,
Mexico, in order to
record the location of
artifacts recovered
during excavation.
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/ National
Geographic
Excavation: Stratigraphy

Digging can be done in either arbitrary levels or by
following the natural stratigraphy.


Using arbitrary level is quicker, but less refined and important
information can be lost.
Following the natural stratigraphy is more labor intensive, but
also more precise way of excavating as each layer (natural or
cultural) is peeled off one by one.
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Excavation: Stratigraphy
James Adovasio
records the
stratigraphy of the
Meadowcroft rock
shelter site in
southwestern
Pennsylvania.
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Credit:
Excavation: Recovery

Archaeologists use a range of techniques to recover
materials from the excavation.


All of the excavated soil is passed through screen to increase
the likelihood that small and fragmented remains are
recovered.
Flotation is used to recovered carbonized and very small
materials like fish bones and seeds.
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Show Me The Money
Anthropologists need funding to support their research in
the field.
 There are a series of agencies that support anthropological
research.





National Science Foundation (NSF)
National Institutes of Health (NIH)
Social Science Research Council (SSRC)
Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research
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Show Me The Money
In order to receive funding from any of these institutions,
anthropologists must write grant proposals that summarize
what questions are going to be addressed, where the
research will be conducted, and how it will be done.
 Why this topic/problem?



The grant writer must present the topic or problem that they
will address during the proposed research.
More importantly, the writer needs to convince the agency that
the topic is important and worthy of being funded.
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Show Me The Money
Why this place?
 The grant writer needs to demonstrate the connection between the
research topic and the location where the research will be carried out.
 Some locations address certain topics better than others.
 Why this person?
 The grant writer needs to identify the special qualifications that he or
she brings to the research topic.
 Proficiency in the local language, previous research experience in the
area, and strong local contacts are important.
 How will the study be done?
 The grant writer needs to discuss, as specifically as possible, how
this research will be carried out.
 This section can include a discussion of the techniques and methods
as well as the logistics of living in the study community and gaining
permission from the study community
to perform the research.
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
Ethics: People and Animals






The primary ethical obligation of the anthropologist is to the people,
species, or materials he or she studies.
Researchers must respect the safety, dignity, and privacy of the people,
species or materials that he or she studies.
Researchers should determine in advance whether their hosts wish to
remain anonymous or receive recognition.
Researchers should obtain the informed consent of the people to be
studied and of those whose interests may be affected by the research.
Anthropologists who develop close relationships with individuals must
adhere to the obligations of openness and informed consent.
Anthropologists may gain personally form their work, but they must not
exploit individuals, groups, animals, or cultural or biological materials.
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Ethics: Scholarship and Science








Anthropologists should expect to encounter ethical dilemmas during
their work.
Anthropologists are responsible for the integrity and reputation of their
discipline, of scholarship, and of science.
Researchers should do all they can to preserve opportunities for future
field work.
To the extent possible, researchers should disseminate their findings to
the scientific and scholarly community.
Anthropologists should consider reasonable requests for access to their
data for purposes of research.
Responsibility to the public.
Researchers should make their results available to sponsors, students,
decision makers, and other non-anthropologists.
Anthropologists may move beyond disseminating research results to a
position of advocacy.
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Ethics: Teaching





Anthropologists should conduct their programs in ways that preclude
discrimination on the basis of sex, marital status, “race”, social class,
political convictions, disability, religion, ethnic background, national
origin, sexual orientation, and age.
Anthropologists should strive to improve their teaching and training
techniques.
Teachers should impress a concern with ethics on their students.
Teachers should properly acknowledge student assistance in their
research and in the preparation of their work.
Teachers must avoid sexual liaisons with those for whose education and
professional training they are in any way responsible.
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Ethics for Applied Anthropology
Applied anthropologists should use and disseminate their
work appropriately.
 With employers, applied anthropologists should be honest
about their qualifications, capabilities, aims, and intentions.
 Applied anthropologists should be alert to the danger of
compromising ethics as a condition for engaging in research
or practice.

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Survey Research


Anthropologists working in large-scale societies are increasingly using
survey methodologies to complement more traditional ethnographic
techniques.
 Survey involves drawing a study group or sample from the larger
study population, collecting impersonal data, and performing
statistical analyses on these data.
 By studying a properly selected and representative sample, social
scientists can make accurate inferences about the larger population.
Survey research is considerably more impersonal than ethnography.
 Survey researchers call the people who make up their study sample
respondents.
 Respondents answer a series of formally administered questions.
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Survey Research
Comparison between Ethnography and Survey Research
ETHNOGRAPHY
SURVEY RESEARCH
is the study whole, functioning
communities
is the study a small sample of a larger
community
is usually based on firsthand fieldwork
during which information is collected
after a good, friendly working
relationship, based on personal
contact, is established between
researcher and informants
is generally interested in studying all
aspects of a the informants’ lives
(holistic)
is often conducted with little to no
personal contact between study
subjects and researchers as interviews
are frequently conducted by assistants
over the phone or in printed form
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usually focused on a small number of
variables, such as ones that influence
voting, rather than on the totality of
people’s lives
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Survey Research
Comparison between Ethnography and Survey Research (continued)
ETHNOGRAPHY
SURVEY RESEARCH
tends to be conducted outside the First
(industrial) World, among
communities that do not read or write
is normally carried out in modern
nations , where most people are
literate, permitting respondents to fill
in their own questionnaire
makes little use of statistics since the
societies being investigated tend to be
smaller and less diverse
is heavily dependent upon statistical
analyses in order to make inferences
regarding a large and diverse study
community, based on data collected
from a small subset of that community
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Anthropology in Complex Societies
Anthropologists rely increasingly on a variety of different
field methodologies to accommodate a demand for greater
breadth of applicability of results.
 Kottak argues that the core contribution of ethnology
remains the qualitative data that result from close, longterm, in-depth contact between ethnographer and subjects.

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Science
Science is a way of viewing the world.
 Science recognizes the tentativeness and uncertainty of our
knowledge and understanding.
 To improve our knowledge, scientists test hypotheses, which
are suggested explanations of things and events.
 Explanations show how and why the thing to be understood
is related to other things in some known way.
 Explanations rely on associations which are the observed
relationships between two or more measured variables.
 A theory is more general, suggesting and implying
associations and attempting to explain them.

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Social Science
Associations are usually stated probabilistically: two or
more variables tend to be related in a predictable way, but
there are exceptions.
 A theory is an explanatory framework that helps us
understand why something exits.
 Theories cannot be proved, we evaluate them through the
method of falsification.



If a theory is true, certain predictions should stand up to tests
designed to disprove them..
Theories that have not been disproved are accepted.
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