Chapter 2 Flashcards
Define armchair anthropology
Refers to an approach to the study of various societies that dominated anthropology in the late 1800s. It involved the collection, study, and analysis of the writings of missionaries, explorers, and colonists who had sustained contact with non-Western peoples. Armchair anthropologists used these documents to make comparisons and generalizations about the ways of life of various groups.
Define culture shock
Refers to a feeling of disorientation in the initial stages of fieldwork when an anthropologist is adjusting to a new language, beliefs, food, or even climate.
Define emic perspective
Traditionally refers to an “insider’s perspective.” The goal of most fieldwork is to employ cultural relativism to understand an issue or perspective from the point of view of one’s informants.
Define essentialism
The act of creating generalizations or stereotypes about the behaviour or culture of a group of people.
Define ethnographic fieldwork
A research method in which sociocultural anthropologists have intensive, long-term engagements with a group of people. It may involve the use of both qualitative and quantitative methods, including interviews, participant observation, and survey-based research.
Define ethnography
A written description and analysis of a particular group of people, usually based upon anthropological fieldwork.
Define etic perspective
Refers to the analysis of an aspect of culture using comparative categories, explanations, and interpretation from the perspective of an outside observer.
Define informed consent
The ongoing process of ensuring that research participants understand the goals, methods, and potential outcomes of the research process and give permission for the researcher to conduct said research.
Define multi-site fieldwork
This term, coined by George Marcus in 1995, refers to the process of connecting localized experiences of fieldwork with broader, global processes. It necessitates understanding various issues from multiple “sites,” or perspectives.
Define participant observation
An element of fieldwork that can involve participating in daily tasks and observing daily interactions among a particular group.
Define qualitative research
Research methods that aim to explore, rather than measure, various phenomena, often through forms of observation such as interviews, focus groups, and direct participant observation.
Define quantitative research
Research methods that involve the generation of statistical data. Examples include surveys and censuses.
Define rapport
A feeling of affinity, friendship, and responsibility between an anthropologist and an informant. It is often developed through the use of long-term ethnographic fieldwork.
Define representation
The way in which a group of people is depicted in writing or through images. Anthropologists are increasingly conscious of the fact that when they write about a group of people, they are constructing particular representations that may have positive or negative long-term effects for a group of people.
Define salvage anthropology
An approach to anthropology that arose in the late 1800s when anthropologists witnessed the extinction or assimilation of Indigenous peoples throughout the world. In response, some anthropologists, such as Franz Boas, suggested that anthropologists rapidly document the oral stories, songs, histories, and other traditions of Indigenous peoples before they disappeared.
