Download 02 Cultural Anthropology

Cultural Anthropology
Cultural Anthropology
• Ethnography
• Ethnology
The basics of ethnographic fieldwork
• Choose a topic and a site
• Conduct preliminary research
• Arrive and establish presence in community
• Gather data
• Return home
• Interpret and report your data
Step 1: Choose a Topic and a Site
Step 2: Conduct Preliminary Research
Step 3: Arrive and Establish
Presence in Community
• How will you make an introduction to the group?
• Can you speak the language?
• How will you establish rapport with individuals
within the society?
• How will you react when
you encounter culture
shock?
Ethnocentrism
Ethnocentrism is the practice of judging another
culture by the standards and values of one’s own
culture
• “wrong”, “weird”, “strange”, “unethical”,
“backward”
• EVERYONE experiences ethnocentrism
• Creates group cohesion
Naturalized Concepts
Cultural ideas that are thought to be essential and exist
as part of the natural world. People often understand
them as common sense.
“People are naturally competitive.”
“Women are more emotional than men.”
“Europeans are mentally superior to people from other
parts of the world.”
Cultural Relativism
Cultural relativism is the perspective that a culture
must be understood and evaluated according to that
culture’s standards and beliefs
• Fundamental to the practice of anthropology
• In some cases is relatively easy to achieve, in other
cases harder
Three Phases of Culture Shock
Disorientation
Reconnection
Disassociation
Step 4: Gathering Data
• Sampling
• Participant Observation
• Interviewing Informants
• Key informants
• Formal / structured interviews
• Informal / unstructured interviews
• Life histories
• Photography and film
Step 5: Return Home
• How do you say goodbye?
• Do you make plans to return?
• How do you react when you encounter reverse
culture shock?
Step 6: Interpret and Report your
Data
Who owns the “truth”?
Etic perspective: the outsider, typically the
anthropologists
Emic perspective: the insider, typically the informants
in the culture being studied
Ethnography, and cultural understanding,
becomes a dialogue between the two
If you were an anthropologist,
what would you research?
• What aspect of culture are you most interested in?
• Where in the world?
• What would be the most interesting parts of your
research?
• What challenges would you have there?
• What do you think would be the best way to gather your
data?
• How would you present your data when finished?