Chapter Three Flashcards
(19 cards)
Fieldwork
Research in the field, which is any place where people and cultures are found, to learn about culture through direct observation.
Armchair Anthropology
How early cultural anthropologists conducted their research by sitting at home in their libraries reading reports about other cultures. They never visited the places they wrote about and had no direct experience with the people whose customs they discussed.
Verandah Anthropology
How in the early twentieth century, anthropologists hired by European colonial governments traveled to their home country’s colonies in Africa or Asia, where they lived near, but not with, the people they were studying.
Participant Observation
A research method for learning about culture that involves living in a culture for a long time while gathering data. The father of participant observation is Bronislaw Malinowski.
Multisited Research
Fieldwork conducted in more than one location to understand the culture of dispersed members of the culture or relationships among different levels of culture.
Rapid-Research Methods
A set of techniques designed to quickly gather data about a culture or community.
Informed Consent
An aspect of fieldwork ethics that requires that the researcher inform the research participants of the intent, scope, and possible effects of the proposed study and seek their consent to be in the study.
Building Rapport
An important process in fieldwork, through which anthropologists gain access to a community or tribe and are able to bring back data.
Gift-Giving
Gift-giving to people involved in research can help the project proceed, provided the gifts are culturally and ethically appropriate.
Culture Shock
Persistent feelings of uneasiness, loneliness, and anxiety that often occur when a person has shifted from one culture to a different one. The more different two cultures are, the more severe the shock is likely to be.
Etic Approach
Data collected according to the researcher’s questions and categories, with the goal of being able to test a hypothesis.
Emic Approach
Data that reflects what insiders say and understand about their culture, and insiders’ categories of thinking.
Mix-Methods
Data collection and analysis that integrates quantitative and qualitative approaches for a more comprehensive understanding of culture
Hawthorne Effect
A research bias that occurs when participants change their behavior to conform to the perceived expectations of the researcher. It was discovered in the 1930s in a study of factories in the United States.
Life History Approach
A qualitative, in-depth description of an individual’s life as narrated to the researcher. Franz Boas said this method was unscientific because research participants might lie or exaggerate, but others say it reveals rich information on individuals and how they think, no matter how “distorted” their reports are.
Toponymy
The Naming of Places
Electronic Devices
Laptop computers enable anthropologists to enter their daily observations directly into the computer. Audio or video recorders are a major aid to fieldwork. Their use may raise problems, however, such as research participant’s suspicions about a machine that can capture their voices and faces, and the ethical issue of protecting the identities of people.
Ethnography
A firsthand, detailed description of a living culture, based on personal observation.
Research Ethics
Cultural anthropologists should never engage in covert research and should always explain their purpose to the people in the study and preserve the anonymity of the location and of individuals.
