Chapter 3 - Doing Fieldwork Flashcards
Contested Identity
A dispute within a group about the collective identity or identities of the group.
Cultural Relativism
The idea that we should seek to understand another person’s beliefs and behaviors from the perspective of their own culture and not our own.
Culture
A set of beliefs, practices, and symbols that are learned and shared. Together, they form an all-encompassing, integrated whole that binds people together and shapes their worldview and lifeways.
Deductive
Reasoning from the general to the specific; the inverse of inductive reasoning. Deductive research is more common in the natural sciences than in anthropology. In a deductive approach, the researcher creates a hypothesis and then designs a study to prove or disprove the hypothesis. The results of deductive research can be generalized to other settings.
Diaspora
The scattering of a group of people who have left their original homeland and now live in various locations. Examples of people living in the diaspora are Salvadorian immigrants in the United States and Europe, Somalian refugees in various countries, and Jewish people living around the world.
Emic
A description of the studied culture from the perspective of a member of the culture or insider.
Ethnocentrism
The tendency to view one’s own culture as most important and correct and as the stick by which to measure all other cultures.
Ethnography
The in-depth study of the everyday practices and lives of a people.
Etic
A description of the studied culture from the perspective of an observer or outsider.
Indigenous
People who have continually lived in a particular location for a long period of time (prior to the arrival of others) or who have historical ties to a location and who are culturally distinct from the dominant population surrounding them. Other terms refer to indigenous people are aboriginal, native, original, first nation, and first people. Some examples of indigenous people are Native Americans of North America, Australian Aborigines, and the Berber (or Amazigh) of North Africa.
Inductive
A type of reasoning that uses specific information to draw general conclusions. In an inductive approach, the researcher seeks to collect evidence without trying to definitively prove or disprove a hypothesis. The researcher usually first spends time in the field to become familiar with the people before identifying a hypothesis or research question. Inductive research usually is not generalized to other settings.
Key Informants
Individuals who are more knowledgeable about their culture than others and who are particularly helpful to the anthropologist.
Kinship
Blood ties, common ancestry, and social relationships that form families within human groups.
Land Tenure
How property rights to land are allocated within societies, including how permissions are granted to access, use, control, and transfer land
Noble Savage
An inaccurate way of portraying indigenous groups or minority cultures as innocent, childlike, or uncorrupted by the negative characteristics of “civilization”.
