Anthropology Test Chapter 3- Ethnographic Research: its history, methods and theories

Digital Ethnography

An ethnographic study of social networks, communicative practices, and other cultural expressions in cyberspace by means of digital visual and audio technologies; also called cyberethnography or netnography

Informal interview

An unstructured, open-ended conversation in everyday life.

"Coming of Age in Samoa (1928)"

Argued that Samoan girls were psychologically untroubled as they made their transition from "girlhood" to "womanhood." Proposed that, unlike their North American or European counterparts, girls in Samoa had experienced more permissive sexual culture.

4. Key Consultants

Often these will be members of the society being studied, who provide information that helps researchers understand the meaning of what they observe.

Globalization

worldwide interconnectedness

Ethnography

-A detailed description of a particular culture primarily based on your own fieldwork.

1.Two Main Methodological Components in Cultural Anthropology:

1.Ethnography & ethnology 2. Stages of working in the fieldwork during ethnography research method:

theory

A coherent statement that provides an explanatory framework for understanding; an explanation or interpretation supported by a reliable body of data.

3. Participant Observation

A research method in which one learns about a group's attitudes and behaviors through: -social participation and personal observation within the community under study -conducting interviews with individual members of the group over an extended stay in the community.

Formal interview

A structures question and answer session carefully notated as it occurs based off prepared questions.

Derek Freeman (1983) Margaret Mead and Samoa: The Making and Unmaking of an Anthropological Myth.

Based on his own fieldwork and historical research (1940-1981). Freeman argued that: Samoan adolescence was a time of frequent stress in an authoritarian society with restrictive regulations against premarital sex. Mead's research lacked full observation of all the Samoan Islands culture. Mead was a victim of hoax or joke.

Ruth Benedict (1946)

Chrysanthemum is a name derived from the Greek words chrysos (gold) and anthos (flower). Benedict depicts the patterns of Japanese culture as combinations of : Militaristic & aesthetic, Rigid, & adaptable Submissive & resentful, Concerned with shame, what others might think of their behavior (Benedict 1946: 3).

Etic view

Data collected according to the outsider researchers' questions and categories

Urgent/Salvage Ethnography & Franz Boas

Documents as much information as possible about endangered indigenous cultures. Ex. 18th & 19th Centuries European influences on Native American communities in the U.S. Ex. Franz Boas (1927) Primitive Art Boas argued that the arts & totems that were produced by the North Pacific Inuit and Kwak'wala speaking communities were complex and needed to be studied in their historical, symbolic, and holistic contexts.

"Culture at a Distance"

During WWII and the Cold War, anthropologists were unable to study some cultures especially those in warring areas. Several prominent anthropologists began a technique of studying "cultures at a distance": focus on the analysis of newspapers, literature, photographs, and films.

1. Acceptance/Informed Consent

Ethical considerations of research proposal Protection of "human subjects" and Institutional Review Boards (IRBs) It is essential that ethnographers receive informed consent from research participants, which is a formal recorded agreement to participate in research Rapport is a trusting relationship between the researcher and the study population Important to establish rapport with gatekeepers

Anthropology's Theoretical Perspectives

Ethnographers will typically fall into one of two categories for their fieldwork. -Idealist perspective A theoretical approach stressing the primacy of superstructure (values &ideas ) in cultural research and analysis. -Materialist perspective A theoretical approach stressing the primacy of infrastructure (material conditions) in cultural research and analysis. Social Construction Perspective: argues that categories of knowledge and of "reality" itself are actively created by and are the products of social and symbolic relationships and interactions in a cultural context.

6. Facing Challenges of Ethnographic Fieldwork

Ethnographic research creates a tough challenge in itself. -Culture shock -Physical challenges -Social and Political challenges

History of Ethnographic Research and its uses

Ethnography emerged as a formal method of anthropological discipline during the height of colonialism (1870-1930) when European & North American anthropologists focused on the study of traditional peoples and their non-Western cultures. There are various types of ethnographic studies, each serving a different function and taking a different approach.

Ethnographic fieldwork

Extended on-location research to gather detailed and in-depth information on a societies customary ideas, values and practices through participation and its collective social life.

Challenges of Ethnography: Culture Shock:

Feelings of... uneasiness and lack of comfort that occur when a person shifts from one culture to another one Reverse culture shock may occur after coming home from fieldwork

Peasant Studies

In the 1950s, peasant studies falls into a category of studying societies between modern industrial society and traditional subsistence foragers, herders, and fishers. Ex. how smaller scale indigenous communities deal with changes to their traditional way of life.

Margaret Mead

In 1925, under Franz Boas's guidance , Mead went to the Samoans of Western Polynesia, in the South Pacific Island, to study adolescence in a non-Western cultural context. Mead did Fieldwork in Islands of Ta'u, Ofu and Olosega in Manu'a archipelago, in Samoa, were the three villages at the center of Mead's fieldwork on Coming of Age in Samoa (1928). Somoa: Stayed in fieldwork for 9 months in 1925. Primarily studied adolescent girls Mead's fieldwork Methodology combined : Collecting data from adolescent girls, between the ages of 8 and 20, in three villages in Samoa. Ex. on their childhood, breast feeding, relations with their families, sexual experience, and so forth.

Derek Freeman (1916-2001)

In 1983, five years after Mead's death, Freeman, a New Zealand Anthropologist, started to publish disputing Mead's conclusions about the Samoan culture and Samoan adolescence. Margaret Mead and Samoa: The Making and Unmaking of an Anthropological Myth (1983) The Fateful Hoaxing of Margaret Mead: A Historical Analysis of her Samoan Research (1999).

Acculturation Studies

Indigenous or native cultures that come into contact with more dominant cultures often change drastically. Ex. abandoning native languages, belief system, or social practices.

Challenges of Ethnography...

Physical challenges typically include but are not limited too: -Adjusting to unfamiliar food, climate, and hygiene conditions. -Ethnographers must spend considerable time interviewing, making detailed notes, and analyzing data. Social & political challenges typically include but are not limited too: -The need to gain acceptance within the community. -Issues involving the researchers & participants age, gender, socioeconomic status, race, etc. -Being at the center of rivaling groups while trying to maintain a neutral position as a researcher.

5. Data Collection: Qualitative & Quantitative

Qualitative: non statistical (testes) information such as personal, stories and customary beliefs and practices. Quantitative: Statistical or measurable information. AKA #'s

Emic view

Seeks to understand what cultural insiders say and understand about their culture, their categories of thinking & behaviors

Data Collection Techniques might include:

Semi structured interviews observing and participating focus group discussion questionnaire field notes digital recording, photography, mapping and videos

Code of Ethics in Anthropology:

Seven core principles: 1.Do no harm. 2. Be open and honest regarding your work. 3. Obtain informed consent and necessary permissions. 4. Weight competing ethical obligations due collaborators and affected parties. 5. Make your results accessible. 6. Protect and preserve your records. 7. Maintain respectful and ethical professional relationships.

2. Site Selection

Several factors: Topic may require a specialized location (relevance), demography, a market place, etc. Accessibility

Ethnology

The study and analysis of different cultures from a comparative point of view.

2. Stages of working in the fieldwork during ethnography research method:

There are many facets to researching a new culture that the ethnography will use: 1. Acceptance/ Informed Consent 2. Site Selection 3. Participant Observant 4. Key Consultant 5. Data Collection 6. Facing Ethnographic Challenges -What makes Ethnographic Fieldwork uniquely challenging? 7. Completing an Ethnography

Margret and Gregory Bateson

They did collaborative ethnographic field work in bali from 1936-1938. Credited with making the first ethnographic film in the field.

Traditional vs. Modern Ethnography

Traditional Ethnography: historically took place on study of far reaching societies where little to no information was known about the peoples and their culture. Modern Ethnography: focused towards documented changing cultures in the face of globalization and assimilation, including in industrial & post-industrial societies.

7. Completing an Ethnography

Upon completion of the data collection in the field the ethnographer must begin to piece together her/his information. Recording Culture Data Analysis

eliciting devices

activities and objects used to draw out individuals and encourage them to recall and share information.

Advocacy Anthropology

research that is community based and involved in advancing the common good & minority rights. Ex. Studies of social justice, humans rights, and the preservation of ethnic minority culture.

Multi-Sited Ethnography

the investigation and documentation of peoples and cultures embedded in the larger structures of a globalizing world, utilizing a range or methods in various locations of time and space. Ex. Diaspora and Transnational Migration Studies