Fieldwork in Anthropology Flashcards
Quantitative Research
Research methods that involve the generation of statistical data.
Survey, Census
Qualitative Research
Research methods that aim to explore, rather than measure various phenomena.
Interviews, Focus Groups. Participant Observation
Why Qualitative?
Concerned with the outliers
Want to understand WHY
people do what they do
Establishes trust and rapport
with communities
Ethnographic fieldwork
A research method in which sociocultural anthropologists have intensive, long-term engagements with groups of people.
Participant observation
a part of fieldwork that involves participating in daily tasks and observing daily interactions among a group
Etic perspective
analysis of an aspect of culture using comparative categories, explanations, and interpretation from an outside perspective
Emic perspective
“insider’s perspective,” trying to understand a cultural issue from the point of view of that culture
Armchair anthropology
studying another culture based on the notes of someone else, rather than visiting yourself
What are some issues with this?
Reduces a culture to a vary limited view
No discussion with people from that culture to verify your conclusions
Some famous armchair anthropologists:
Edward Tylor
Emilie Durkheim
Marcel Mauss
Founders of ethnography and participant observation:
Bronislaw Malinowski
Franz Boas
History of Anthropology and Ethnography
Thinking about culture as a bounded whole
Thinking about culture as unchanging
Assuming other cultures were primitive
Assuming the ethnographer could make judgements about the culture they were studying (etic perspective)
Problems with early Ethnography
Power structures
Race
Class
Gender
Usually missing perspective of women
Cultures described “completely” using limited information
Malinowski – Founder of Ethnography
Ethnography in the Trobriand Islands
Stranded there during World War I
Decided to conduct long-term research through participant-observation
Focused more on emic perspective
Franz Boas – Salvage Anthropology
Interested in documentation of Indigenous people in North America
Trying to “preserve” cultures before they disappeared
Studying own culture
Field sites no longer restricted to non-Western contexts
Not traveling to a far away field site
Can be a part of studied group
Studying “up”
Not always unequal power relationship
Example: studying corporate culture
Asking different questions
Globalization
Postcolonialism and
Neocolonialism
Power relations
Ethical problems
Multi-sited fieldwork
Looks at issues from various sites and perspectives
Example: Nancy Scheper-Hughes studying global trafficking of organs
Technology
Conducting fieldwork online
Can supplement in-person fieldwork or stand alone
How has fieldwork stayed the same?
Ethnography
Anthropologists still mostly flow from former colonial powers to former colonies
Ethical issues
ethics
Ethnographers create knowledge about the people they study
Who gets to decide what knowledge is created and shared?
How do people consent to being studied?
Informed Consent
The ongoing process of enduring that research participants understand the goals, methods, and potential outcomes of the research process, and give permission for the researchers to conduct said research.
Institutional ethics review
Standardized by institution
Meant to provide protection for studied group and institution
Ethics review for protected populations
First Nations and other Indigenous groups
Children, prisoners, refugees, pregnant women, etc
Researcher’s responsibility is to informants
Pursuit of knowledge and personal goals are secondary
Must consider how research will affect the studied population
Changing names of people and places
Being careful not to betray informants to authorities
Consent to directly quote
Anthropologists’ presence in the field affects the lives of research participants
Changes behavior while being studied
Can cause disruption in power structures, practices, etc.
Written ethnography informs perspectives of the studied group
