Cultural Anthropology - Applied Perspective: Chapter 5: Methods in Cultural and Applied Cultural Anthropology

research proposal

*Cultural Anthropology - Applied Perspective*... *Chapter 5: Methods in Cultural and Applied Cultural Anthropology*... *Data-Gathering Techniques* A central problem facing any anthropological fieldworker is determining the most appropriate methods for collecting data... There is a need to be flexible, however, because the techniques originally planned in the _____ may prove to be inappropriate when actually used in the field. --------------- *Definition* _____ - A written proposal required for funding anthropological research that spells out in detail a research project's purpose, hypotheses, methodology, and significance.

genealogical method

*Cultural Anthropology - Applied Perspective*... *Chapter 5: Methods in Cultural and Applied Cultural Anthropology*... *Data-Gathering Techniques*... *Additional Data-Gathering Techniques*... *Collecting Genealogies*... Another technique used to collect cultural data is the _____, which involves writing down all the relatives of a particular informant. --------------- *Definition* _____ - A technique of collecting data in which anthropologists write down all the kin of an informant.

obtrusive effect

*Cultural Anthropology - Applied Perspective*... *Chapter 5: Methods in Cultural and Applied Cultural Anthropology*... *Data-Gathering Techniques*... *Participant Observation*... *Disadvantages of Participant Observation*... ...a major methodological shortcoming of participant observation is that it has an _____ on the thing that is being studied. --------------- *Definition* _____ - The presence of a researcher causes people to behave differently than they would if the researcher was not present.

research clearance

*Cultural Anthropology - Applied Perspective*... *Chapter 5: Methods in Cultural and Applied Cultural Anthropology*... *Data-Gathering Techniques*... *Participant Observation*... *Guidelines for Participant Observation*... Before entering a country on a long-term visa, an anthropologist must obtain _____, or permission, from a high level of the national government. --------------- *Definition* _____ - Permission from the host country in which fieldwork is to be conducted.

Participant Observation, Interview, Additional Data-Gathering Techniques, Applied Field Methods

*Cultural Anthropology - Applied Perspective*... *Chapter 5: Methods in Cultural and Applied Cultural Anthropology*... *Data-Gathering Techniques*... *___1___*... *___2___ing*... *___3___*... *___4___*... *Summary*... 4. Because no two fieldwork experiences are identical, cultural anthropologists must match the appropriate data-gathering techniques to their own fieldwork situations. Among the tools at the anthropologists' disposal are ___1___, ___2___ing, [and ___3___ such as] ethnographic mapping, census taking, document analysis, the collection of genealogies, and photography.

Videoconferencing

*Cultural Anthropology - Applied Perspective*... *Chapter 5: Methods in Cultural and Applied Cultural Anthropology*... *Recent Trends in Ethnographic Fieldwork*... *New Information Technology*... New tools include, but are not limited to, the following examples: -Internet search engines... -Programs for ethnographic analysis... -Internet reference pages... -_____: Several collaborating social scientists and other researchers can share information from one another's desktops while communicating face to face electronically... -Internet survey research

Statistical Cross-Cultural Comparisons

*Cultural Anthropology - Applied Perspective*... *Chapter 5: Methods in Cultural and Applied Cultural Anthropology*... *Recent Trends in Ethnographic Fieldwork*... *Reflexive Methods*... *_____* During the first half of the twentieth century, anthropologists amassed considerable descriptive data on a wide variety of cultures throughout the world. *New Information Technology*... *Mining Social Networking Websites for Sociocultural Data*

Reflexive Methods, Statistical Cross-Cultural Comparisons, New Information Technology, Mining Social Networking Websites for Sociocultural Data

*Cultural Anthropology - Applied Perspective*... *Chapter 5: Methods in Cultural and Applied Cultural Anthropology*... *Recent Trends in Ethnographic Fieldwork*... *___1___*... *___2___*... *___3___*... *___4___*

Reflexive Methods

*Cultural Anthropology - Applied Perspective*... *Chapter 5: Methods in Cultural and Applied Cultural Anthropology*... *Recent Trends in Ethnographic Fieldwork*... *_____*... The narrative or reflexive approach to ethnography involves a dialogue between participant and ethnographer... *Statistical Cross-Cultural Comparisons*... *New Information Technology*... *Mining Social Networking Websites for Sociocultural Data*

analyzing data

*Cultural Anthropology - Applied Perspective*... *Chapter 5: Methods in Cultural and Applied Cultural Anthropology*... *Stages of Field Research*... *Stage 4: Analyzing the Data* Once data have been collected from any fieldwork experience, the process of _____ begins. --------------- *Definition* _____ - One of five stages of fieldwork in which cultural anthropologists determine the meaning of data collected in the field.

Interpreting data

*Cultural Anthropology - Applied Perspective*... *Chapter 5: Methods in Cultural and Applied Cultural Anthropology*... *Stages of Field Research*... *Stage 5: Interpreting the Data* _____—perhaps the most difficult step—involves explaining the findings. --------------- *Definition* _____ - The stage of fieldwork, often the most difficult, in which anthropologists search for meaning in the data collected in the field.

Recent Trends in Ethnographic Fieldwork

*Cultural Anthropology - Applied Perspective*... *Chapter 5: Methods in Cultural and Applied Cultural Anthropology*... *_____* (Recent Trends in Ethnographic Fieldwork) Much of this chapter on ethnographic field research discusses an essentially scientific approach... The point of this chapter has been to demonstrate that cultural anthropology, like any scientific discipline, must strive toward objectivity by being sensitive to methodological issues.

field notes

*Cultural Anthropology - Applied Perspective*... *Chapter 5: Methods in Cultural and Applied Cultural Anthropology*... To get a better handle on a particular culture, an anthropologist begins by listening to stories and other kinds of talk that give insight into the community. Anthropologists refer to this form of data as qualitative data... These data are important to the research process and may be logged in anthropologists' _____ or digitally recorded and transcribed for later text analyses. --------------- *Definition* _____ - The daily descriptive notes recorded by an anthropologist during or after an observation of a specific phenomenon or activity.

Photography

*Cultural Anthropology - Applied Perspective*... *Chapter 5: Methods in Cultural and Applied Cultural Anthropology*... *Data-Gathering Techniques*... *Additional Data-Gathering Techniques*... *Census Taking*... *Mapping*... *Document Analysis*... *Collecting Genealogies*... *_____* A particularly important aid to the fieldworker's collection of data is _____, both still _____ and videography... _____ has become such an important part of anthropological research that it is hard to imagine an anthropologist in the field without a camera. As a research tool, the camera can be put to many uses. First, as mentioned previously, the camera can produce a lasting record of land-use patterns and the general ecological arrangements in the community under study. Second, as the adage suggests, a picture is worth a thousand words... Third, _____ can be used as a probe in the interview process. Because photographs become objects of discussion, informants feel less like subjects and more like expert commentators. And finally, photographs may be taken by members of the community. Allowing members of the community to photograph and document what is meaningful to them and their culture provides insiders' perspective... Leaving copies of these photographic images with the community members, if appropriate, is a way of sharing with and giving back to the community. --------------- *Definition* _____ - The use of a camera or video camera to document the ecology, material culture, and social interactions of people during ethnographic fieldwork.

Collecting Genealogies

*Cultural Anthropology - Applied Perspective*... *Chapter 5: Methods in Cultural and Applied Cultural Anthropology*... *Data-Gathering Techniques*... *Additional Data-Gathering Techniques*... *Census Taking*... *Mapping*... *Document Analysis*... *_____*... Collecting this type of information is especially important in the small-scale societies that anthropologists often study because kinship relationships tend to be the primary social ties in those societies (see Figure 5.6)... *Photography*

Document Analysis

*Cultural Anthropology - Applied Perspective*... *Chapter 5: Methods in Cultural and Applied Cultural Anthropology*... *Data-Gathering Techniques*... *Additional Data-Gathering Techniques*... *Census Taking*... *Mapping*... *_____* Cultural anthropologists may do _____ to supplement the information they collect through interviews and observation... The advantage to using historical documents or reviewing popular culture is that neither is expensive nor time-consuming, and it is totally unobtrusive in providing anthropologists with a cultural context for their research. *Collecting Genealogies*... *Photography* --------------- *Definition* _____ - Examination of data such as personal diaries, newspapers, colonial records, and so on.

ethnographic mapping

*Cultural Anthropology - Applied Perspective*... *Chapter 5: Methods in Cultural and Applied Cultural Anthropology*... *Data-Gathering Techniques*... *Additional Data-Gathering Techniques*... *Mapping*... Another data-gathering tool used in the early stages of fieldwork is _____—attempting to locate people, material culture, and environmental features in space. --------------- *Definition* _____ - A data-gathering tool that locates where the people being studied live, where they keep their livestock, where public buildings are located, and so on, to determine how that culture interacts with its environment.

proxemic analysis, event analysis

*Cultural Anthropology - Applied Perspective*... *Chapter 5: Methods in Cultural and Applied Cultural Anthropology*... *Data-Gathering Techniques*... *Additional Data-Gathering Techniques*... *Photography*... ...ethnographic documentaries can be extremely helpful in ___1___... and ___2___...

proxemic analysis

*Cultural Anthropology - Applied Perspective*... *Chapter 5: Methods in Cultural and Applied Cultural Anthropology*... *Data-Gathering Techniques*... *Additional Data-Gathering Techniques*... *Photography*... ...ethnographic documentaries can be extremely helpful in _____ (that is, the study of how people in different cultures distance themselves from one another in normal interactions) and event analysis... --------------- *Definition* _____ - The study of how people in different cultures use space.

event analysis

*Cultural Anthropology - Applied Perspective*... *Chapter 5: Methods in Cultural and Applied Cultural Anthropology*... *Data-Gathering Techniques*... *Additional Data-Gathering Techniques*... *Photography*... ...ethnographic documentaries can be extremely helpful in proxemic analysis... and _____ (that is, documentation of who participates in events such as circumcision ceremonies, marriages, and funerals). --------------- *Definition* _____ - Photographic documentation of events such as weddings, funerals, and festivals in the culture under investigation.

Census Taking, Mapping, Document Analysis, Collecting Genealogies, Photography

*Cultural Anthropology - Applied Perspective*... *Chapter 5: Methods in Cultural and Applied Cultural Anthropology*... *Data-Gathering Techniques*... *Additional Data-Gathering Techniques*... *___1___*... *___2___*... *___3___*... *___4___*... *___5___*

Census Taking

*Cultural Anthropology - Applied Perspective*... *Chapter 5: Methods in Cultural and Applied Cultural Anthropology*... *Data-Gathering Techniques*... *Additional Data-Gathering Techniques*... *_____* Early on in the fieldwork, anthropologists usually conduct a census of the area under investigation. Because _____ involves the collection of basic demographic data, such as age, occupation, marital status, and household composition, it is generally not threatening to the local people. *Mapping*... *Document Analysis*... *Collecting Genealogies*... *Photography* --------------- *Definition* _____ - The collection of demographic data about the culture being studied.

Focus groups

*Cultural Anthropology - Applied Perspective*... *Chapter 5: Methods in Cultural and Applied Cultural Anthropology*... *Data-Gathering Techniques*... *Applied Field Methods*... -Community-based participatory research (CBPR)... -Participatory rural appraisal (PRA)... -Rapid ethnographic assessment (REA)... -Surveys... -_____: These are small groups (six to ten people) convened to discuss a particular topic... Although _____ are helpful for getting a group perspective, applied anthropologists use them to generate insights not always available from merely interviewing individuals.

Survey

*Cultural Anthropology - Applied Perspective*... *Chapter 5: Methods in Cultural and Applied Cultural Anthropology*... *Data-Gathering Techniques*... *Applied Field Methods*... -Community-based participatory research (CBPR)... -Participatory rural appraisal (PRA)... -Rapid ethnographic assessment (REA)... -_____s... Applied anthropologists as well as ethnographers use _____ methods to gather a large amount of attitudinal and behavioral data in a relatively short time frame. _____s are particularly useful to anthropologists working in complex communities where there is not a single "native" point of view... -Focus groups...

Rapid ethnographic assessment (REA)

*Cultural Anthropology - Applied Perspective*... *Chapter 5: Methods in Cultural and Applied Cultural Anthropology*... *Data-Gathering Techniques*... *Applied Field Methods*... -Community-based participatory research (CBPR)... -Participatory rural appraisal (PRA)... -_____: As its name implies, _____ requires much less time than traditional ethnographic fieldwork... Ideally, applied anthropologists are already familiar with the culture, speak the local language, and are experts in the problems being investigated. The research tends to be narrowly focused on the problem area, and the sample size is small. -Surveys... -Focus groups...

Participatory rural appraisal (PRA)

*Cultural Anthropology - Applied Perspective*... *Chapter 5: Methods in Cultural and Applied Cultural Anthropology*... *Data-Gathering Techniques*... *Applied Field Methods*... -Community-based participatory research (CBPR)... -_____: This is one of the most useful methods that applied anthropologists use because of its strong commitment to community participation... With the use of local mapping, _____ relies on the cooperation of community members, development professionals, including applied anthropologists, and can discover and document local conditions that are relevant to planning programs and projects that are culturally appropriate. -Rapid ethnographic assessment (REA)... -Surveys... -Focus groups...

Community-based participatory research (CBPR), Participatory rural appraisal (PRA), Rapid ethnographic assessment (REA), Survey, Focus groups

*Cultural Anthropology - Applied Perspective*... *Chapter 5: Methods in Cultural and Applied Cultural Anthropology*... *Data-Gathering Techniques*... *Applied Field Methods*... To be certain, applied anthropologists use a number of methods: -___1___... -___2___... -___3___... -___4___s... -___5___...

attitudinal data, behavioral data

*Cultural Anthropology - Applied Perspective*... *Chapter 5: Methods in Cultural and Applied Cultural Anthropology*... *Data-Gathering Techniques*... *Interviewing* Interviewing is used for obtaining information on what people think or feel (___1___) as well as on what they do (___2___).

attitudinal data

*Cultural Anthropology - Applied Perspective*... *Chapter 5: Methods in Cultural and Applied Cultural Anthropology*... *Data-Gathering Techniques*... *Interviewing* Interviewing is used for obtaining information on what people think or feel (_____) as well as on what they do (behavioral data). --------------- *Definition* _____ - Information collected in a fieldwork situation that describes what a person thinks, believes, or feels.

behavioral data

*Cultural Anthropology - Applied Perspective*... *Chapter 5: Methods in Cultural and Applied Cultural Anthropology*... *Data-Gathering Techniques*... *Interviewing* Interviewing is used for obtaining information on what people think or feel (attitudinal data) as well as on what they do (_____). --------------- *Definition* _____ - Information collected in a fieldwork situation that describes what a person does.

Unstructured

*Cultural Anthropology - Applied Perspective*... *Chapter 5: Methods in Cultural and Applied Cultural Anthropology*... *Data-Gathering Techniques*... *Interviewing*... *Structured, Semistructured, and _____ Interviews* Ethnographic interviews may be _____, semi-structured, or structured, depending on the level of control retained by the interviewer. In _____ interviews, which involve a minimum of control, the interviewer asks open-ended questions on a general topic and allows interviewees to respond at their own pace using their own words... _____ interviews, which are most often used early in the data-gathering process, have the advantage of allowing participants to decide what is important to include in their responses to anthropologists' questions... *Summary*... 7... In _____ interviews, interviewers ask open-ended questions and permit interviewees to respond at their own pace. In structured interviews, interviewers ask the same questions of all respondents, in the same order, and under the same set of social conditions. --------------- *Definition* _____ interviews - An ethnographic data-gathering technique—most often used in the early stages of fieldwork—in which participants are asked to respond to broad, open-ended questions.

Table 5.2: Guidelines for Ethnographic Interviewing

*Cultural Anthropology - Applied Perspective*... *Chapter 5: Methods in Cultural and Applied Cultural Anthropology*... *Data-Gathering Techniques*... *Interviewing*... *Structured, Unstructured, and Semistructured Interviews*... *_____* (Table 5.2: Guidelines for Ethnographic Interviewing) -Obtain informed consent before interviewing; when appropriate get a signature from the respondent. -Maintain neutrality by not conveying to the interviewee what may be the "desired" answer. -Pretest questions to make sure they are understandable and culturally relevant. -Keep the recording of an interview as unobtrusive as possible. -Make certain that the conditions under which the interviews are conducted do not encourage the distortion of testimony. -Use simple, unambiguous, and jargon-free language. Phrase questions to avoid yes or no responses... -Keep the questions and the interview itself short, preferable one page for questions handled in less than an hour. -Avoid two-pronged (having two parts to the answer) questions. -Save controversial questions for the end of the interview. -Be sensitive to the needs and cultural expectations of the respondents. -Remember that after each completed interview, participants will talk to their friends and neighbors about the interview process. It may get more difficult to complete additional interviews once the curiosity wears off.

Semistructured

*Cultural Anthropology - Applied Perspective*... *Chapter 5: Methods in Cultural and Applied Cultural Anthropology*... *Data-Gathering Techniques*... *Interviewing*... *Structured, _____, and Unstructured Interviews* Ethnographic interviews may be unstructured, _____, or structured, depending on the level of control retained by the interviewer... And in between structured and unstructured interviews are _____ interviews in which the anthropologist relies on an interview guide covering the topics he or she needs to address in a particular order during an interview. ---------- *Definition* _____ interviews - An ethnographic data-gathering technique used in which participants are asked to respond to both open-ended questions and select from options listed on the questionnaire or survey.

Structured, Semistructured, Unstructured

*Cultural Anthropology - Applied Perspective*... *Chapter 5: Methods in Cultural and Applied Cultural Anthropology*... *Data-Gathering Techniques*... *Interviewing*... *___1___, ___2___, and ___3___ Interviews* Ethnographic interviews may be ___3___, ___2___, or ___1___, depending on the level of control retained by the interviewer... ___1___, ___2___, and ___3___ interviews have advantages that tend to complement each other.

Applied Field Methods

*Cultural Anthropology - Applied Perspective*... *Chapter 5: Methods in Cultural and Applied Cultural Anthropology*... *Data-Gathering Techniques*... *Participant Observation*... *Interviewing*... *Additional Data-Gathering Techniques*... *_____* As pointed out in Chapter 3, there are fundamental differences in the research conducted by descriptive ethnographers and applied cultural anthropologists. When compared to more descriptive anthropological research, applied research is characterized as (1) more collaborative and interdisciplinary, (2) more inclusive of local people in all stages of the research, and (3) faced with real-time limitations (weeks or months rather than years).

Additional Data-Gathering Techniques

*Cultural Anthropology - Applied Perspective*... *Chapter 5: Methods in Cultural and Applied Cultural Anthropology*... *Data-Gathering Techniques*... *Participant Observation*... *Interviewing*... *_____* Even though participant observation and interviewing are the mainstays of anthropological fieldwork, cultural anthropologists use other techniques for collecting cultural data at various stages of the field study. These techniques include census taking, mapping, document analysis, collection of genealogies, and photography— although this list is hardly exhaustive. *Applied Field Methods*

Interview

*Cultural Anthropology - Applied Perspective*... *Chapter 5: Methods in Cultural and Applied Cultural Anthropology*... *Data-Gathering Techniques*... *Participant Observation*... *_____ing* In addition to using participant observation, cultural anthropologists in the field rely heavily on ethnographic _____ing... Even though many disciplines (including sociology, economics, political science, and psychology) widely use _____ing, the ethnographic _____ is unique in three important respects. First, in ethnographic _____s, the _____er and the participant almost always speak different first languages. Second, ethnographic _____s are often broad in scope because they elicit information about the entire culture. Third, ethnographic _____s cannot be used alone but must be used in conjunction with other data-gathering techniques. *Structured, Semistructured, and Unstructured _____s*... It is important to be aware of the social situation in which the _____ takes place... Table 5.2 offers guidelines for conducting ethnographic _____s. *Validity of the Data Collected* A cultural anthropologist in the field must devise ways to check the validity of _____ data. One way to validate data is to ask a number of different people the same question... Another method of checking the validity of _____ data is to ask a person the same question over a period of time... A third way to determine validity is to compare the responses with people's actual behavior. *Additional Data-Gathering Techniques*... *Applied Field Methods*... *Summary*... 7. Ethnographic _____s, which are particularly useful for collecting both attitudinal and behavioral data, are of two basic types: unstructured and structured.

Choosing a Technique

*Cultural Anthropology - Applied Perspective*... *Chapter 5: Methods in Cultural and Applied Cultural Anthropology*... *Data-Gathering Techniques*... *_____* (Choosing a Technique) Which data-gathering technique(s) will be used depends largely on the nature of the problem being investigated... Another significant factor that influences the choice of techniques is the receptivity of the people being studied... Whatever technique is selected, it should be used in conjunction with at least two other techniques. By using multiple techniques, an anthropologist can collect different types of data concerning the same set of issues, using the different sets of data to cross-check their validity.

Internet survey research

*Cultural Anthropology - Applied Perspective*... *Chapter 5: Methods in Cultural and Applied Cultural Anthropology*... *Recent Trends in Ethnographic Fieldwork*... *New Information Technology*... New tools include, but are not limited to, the following examples: -Internet search engines... -Programs for ethnographic analysis... -Internet reference pages... -Videoconferencing... -_____: Using such sites as Zoomerang and SurveyMonkey, cultural anthropologists are able to create survey instruments, invite participants, administer the surveys, and tally and analyze the results.

Internet reference pages

*Cultural Anthropology - Applied Perspective*... *Chapter 5: Methods in Cultural and Applied Cultural Anthropology*... *Recent Trends in Ethnographic Fieldwork*... *New Information Technology*... New tools include, but are not limited to, the following examples: -Internet search engines... -Programs for ethnographic analysis... -_____: Such websites as New York Times, Smithsonian Institution, and Library of Congress are excellent sources of information for conducting research in either ethnography or ethnology. -Videoconferencing... -Internet survey research

Programs for ethnographic analysis

*Cultural Anthropology - Applied Perspective*... *Chapter 5: Methods in Cultural and Applied Cultural Anthropology*... *Recent Trends in Ethnographic Fieldwork*... *New Information Technology*... New tools include, but are not limited to, the following examples: -Internet search engines... -_____: Since the 1980s several excellent computer-assisted programs have been developed to facilitate the analysis of ethnographic data... -Internet reference pages... -Videoconferencing... -Internet survey research

Internet search engines, Programs for ethnographic analysis, Internet reference pages, Videoconferencing, Internet survey research

*Cultural Anthropology - Applied Perspective*... *Chapter 5: Methods in Cultural and Applied Cultural Anthropology*... *Recent Trends in Ethnographic Fieldwork*... *New Information Technology*... New tools include, but are not limited to, the following examples: -___1___... -___2___... -___3___... -___4___... -___5___... Although these tools do not provide the quality of data derived from actual fieldwork, they enable researchers to obtain and analyze data without ever having to leave their personal computer... *Summary*... 9. The twenty-first century has ushered in Web-based tools for collecting large amounts of high-quality anthropological data. Social networking sites such as Facebook provide attitudinal and behavioral data from people throughout the world.

Internet search engines

*Cultural Anthropology - Applied Perspective*... *Chapter 5: Methods in Cultural and Applied Cultural Anthropology*... *Recent Trends in Ethnographic Fieldwork*... *New Information Technology*... New tools include, but are not limited to, the following examples: -_____: These general mega-search engines, available with a single mouse click, provide a wide variety of data relevant for research in cultural anthropology (see, for example, Google Scholar and JSTOR). -Programs for ethnographic analysis... -Internet reference pages... -Videoconferencing... -Internet survey research

Mining Social Networking Websites for Sociocultural Data

*Cultural Anthropology - Applied Perspective*... *Chapter 5: Methods in Cultural and Applied Cultural Anthropology*... *Recent Trends in Ethnographic Fieldwork*... *Reflexive Methods*... *Statistical Cross-Cultural Comparisons*... *New Information Technology*... *_____* Some social scientists are beginning to use social networking websites, such as Facebook and Linkedln, to mine large quantities of sociocultural data about the adults who frequent these sites... Facebook and Twitter have captured the interests of many from around the world.

New Information Technology

*Cultural Anthropology - Applied Perspective*... *Chapter 5: Methods in Cultural and Applied Cultural Anthropology*... *Recent Trends in Ethnographic Fieldwork*... *Reflexive Methods*... *Statistical Cross-Cultural Comparisons*... *_____*... Although anthropologists today continue to use traditional data-gathering methods, such as participant observation and interviewing, the revolution in information technology that has occurred during the past twenty years has greatly expanded the toolkit of twenty-first-century cultural anthropologists... *Mining Social Networking Websites for Sociocultural Data*

reflexive or narrative ethnography

*Cultural Anthropology - Applied Perspective*... *Chapter 5: Methods in Cultural and Applied Cultural Anthropology*... *Recent Trends in Ethnographic Fieldwork*... *Reflexive Methods*... Despite the quest for scientific objectivity, conducting ethnographic fieldwork is quite different from doing research in a chemistry or biology laboratory... Since the 1970s, however, postmodernists (see Chapter 4) have ushered in a new type of ethnography that has become known as _____... ...many ethnographers today use the term collaborators rather than informants, recognizing the role of people who are providing information to anthropologists. ---------- *Definition* _____ - A type of ethnography, associated with postmodernism, that focuses more on the interaction between the ethnographer and the informant than on scientific objectivity.

Human Relations Area Files (HRAF)

*Cultural Anthropology - Applied Perspective*... *Chapter 5: Methods in Cultural and Applied Cultural Anthropology*... *Recent Trends in Ethnographic Fieldwork*... *Statistical Cross-Cultural Comparisons*... The development of statistical, cross-cultural comparative studies was made possible in the 1940s by George Peter Murdock and his colleagues at Yale University, who developed a coded data retrieval system known as the _____. The largest anthropological data bank in the world, _____ has vast amounts of information about more than 300 different cultures organized into more than 700 different cultural subject headings... The creation of _____ has opened up the possibility for making statistical comparisons among large numbers of cultures. --------------- *Definition* _____ - The world's largest anthropological data retrieval system, used to test cross-cultural hypotheses.

Interpreting the Data

*Cultural Anthropology - Applied Perspective*... *Chapter 5: Methods in Cultural and Applied Cultural Anthropology*... *Stages of Field Research*... *Stage 1: Selecting a Research Problem*... *Stage 2: Formulating a Research Design*... *Stage 3: Collecting the Data*... *Stage 4: Analyzing the Data*... *Stage 5: _____* Like any science, the discipline of anthropology does more than simply describe specific cultures... To draw on the JAP once again, interpreting the findings revealed differences in land and tree ownership among residents of the resettlement area... The land and tree use in the community was noticeably transformed by new residents on the flatlands and hillsides.

Analyzing the Data

*Cultural Anthropology - Applied Perspective*... *Chapter 5: Methods in Cultural and Applied Cultural Anthropology*... *Stages of Field Research*... *Stage 1: Selecting a Research Problem*... *Stage 2: Formulating a Research Design*... *Stage 3: Collecting the Data*... *Stage 4: _____*... For the JAP, Andreatta's analyses focused on a community of small-scale Jamaican farmers and identified patterns they shared with respect to livestock management practices and crop production... When all of the data were coded and analyzed, patterns emerged among the residents of the resettlement area, and the composition of the resettlement area was found to be significant for several reasons... *Stage 5: Interpreting the Data*

Collecting the Data

*Cultural Anthropology - Applied Perspective*... *Chapter 5: Methods in Cultural and Applied Cultural Anthropology*... *Stages of Field Research*... *Stage 1: Selecting a Research Problem*... *Stage 2: Formulating a Research Design*... *Stage 3: _____*... Through participant observation and interviewing— the two primary field techniques cultural anthropologists use—data and information were collected on crop production and livestock care. From interviews with farmers, data were gathered on the following topics: land (tenure, size, and use), labor (wage labor, family labor, frequency, and tasks), livestock (number and type), trees (species of fruit and fodder trees, location, and use), markets (crops, livestock, fruit, frequency of marketing, where products are sold, and means of getting goods to market), access to agricultural information (technology, markets, etc.), technology used in farming (inputs and tools used), and information on natural environmental (climate, seasonal variation, soils, erosion, and access to water), and political and economic factors that influence farming practices over time. *Stage 4: Analyzing the Data*... *Stage 5: Interpreting the Data*

Formulating a Research Design

*Cultural Anthropology - Applied Perspective*... *Chapter 5: Methods in Cultural and Applied Cultural Anthropology*... *Stages of Field Research*... *Stage 1: Selecting a Research Problem*... *Stage 2: _____*... Relying on political ecology as the theoretical framework, Andreatta's research was to identify what people were doing (behavior) on and off the farm and how a new farming technique, such as planting and caring for nitrogen-fixing trees, would fit into their farming practices. The project identified five specific categories of questions: 1. Residence patterns: How long had families lived in the resettlement area? Was their home located near their pastureland? 2. Occupation: Were they currently farmers? Had they always been farmers? What was their occupation before they lived in the resettlement area? 3. Land tenure: Did they own the land where their house was located? Did they have pastureland? How much land was in pasture? Did they own all the pastureland they used? 4. Livestock ownership: Did the household raise cattle, goats, or both? How long had they been raising the animals? What challenges did they face with their livestock, and how had they been handling the challenges? 5. Tree use: Did they have access to trees on their property? Did they plant trees? Did they harvest from the trees? What were the current uses for trees (charcoal production, timber, orchards, living fence line, feed for animals, green manure, etc.)? *Stage 3: Collecting the Data*... *Stage 4: Analyzing the Data*... *Stage 5: Interpreting the Data*

Selecting a Research Problem

*Cultural Anthropology - Applied Perspective*... *Chapter 5: Methods in Cultural and Applied Cultural Anthropology*... *Stages of Field Research*... *Stage 1: _____* In the early twentieth century, the major aim of fieldwork was to describe a culture in as much ethnographic detail as possible... The shift to a problem-oriented approach lends itself to research that builds on a series of descriptive questions that are progressively more complex to better understand not only how and why particular problems have come to be, but also what may be done about them... The problem-oriented issue that gave rise to the JAP sought answers to both a long-term problem and a short-term problem. The long-term problem was rapid soil erosion, and the short-term problem was the lack of fodder for livestock during the dry season... Andreatta conducted one year of fieldwork, and the data and information obtained assisted a forestry student in determining where to plant nitrogen-fixing trees that would provide fodder for cattle farmers during the drought period... As it was, the JAP was a multidisciplinary, multiyear project... *Stage 2: Formulating a Research Design*... *Stage 3: Collecting the Data*... *Stage 4: Analyzing the Data*... *Stage 5: Interpreting the Data*

collecting data

*Cultural Anthropology - Applied Perspective*... *Chapter 5: Methods in Cultural and Applied Cultural Anthropology*... *Stages of Field Research*... *Stage 3: Collecting the Data* Once a series of big-picture questions, driven by theory, have been developed, the next step—_____—involves selecting the appropriate data-gathering techniques. --------------- *Definition* _____ - The stage of fieldwork that involves selecting data-gathering techniques and gathering information pertinent to the hypothesis being studied.

bicultural perspective

*Cultural Anthropology - Applied Perspective*... *Chapter 5: Methods in Cultural and Applied Cultural Anthropology*... *The Pains and Gains of Fieldwork*... *Biculturalism* Not all of the consequences of fieldwork are negative... When learning about another culture in depth, people become bicultural and develop a much broader view of human behavior... Richard Barrett (1991: 20-21) captured the essence of this _____, which he claims enables cultural anthropologists to view the world through two or more cultural lenses at once... It makes them continually aware of alternative ways of doing things and prevents them from taking the customs of our own society too seriously. When speaking of achieving biculturalism, it should not be assumed that anthropologists, no matter how much fieldwork they do, will ever become natives... ...No matter how long one spends studying another culture, the anthropologist is little more than "an outsider who knows something of what it is to be an insider" (1992: 77). --------------- *Definition* _____ - The capacity to think and perceive in the categories of one's own culture as well as in the categories of a second culture.

Table 5.3: Symptoms of Culture Shock

*Cultural Anthropology - Applied Perspective*... *Chapter 5: Methods in Cultural and Applied Cultural Anthropology*... *The Pains and Gains of Fieldwork*... *Culture Shock*... *_____* (Table 5.3: Symptoms of Culture Shock) -Homesickness -Boredom -Withdrawal... -Need for excessive amounts of sleep -Compulsive eating -Compulsive drinking -Irritability -Exaggerated cleanliness -Marital stress -Family tension and conflict -Chauvinistic excesses -Stereotyping of host nationals -Hostility toward host nationals -Loss of ability to work effectively -Unexplainable fits of weeping -Physical ailments (psychosomatic illnesses) -Feelings of isolation -Weight loss -Feelings of helplessness -Tenseness, moodiness, and irritability -Loss of confidence -Fear of the worst happening

Culture Shock

*Cultural Anthropology - Applied Perspective*... *Chapter 5: Methods in Cultural and Applied Cultural Anthropology*... *The Pains and Gains of Fieldwork*... Sometimes cultural anthropologists in the field can be in life-threatening situations, not just uncomfortable ones... *_____* Not all introductions to fieldwork are as unsettling as these, of course. But even anthropologists whose field- work experience is less traumatic encounter some level of stress from _____, the psychological disorientation caused by trying to adjust to major differences in lifestyles and living conditions. _____, a term introduced by anthropologist Kalervo Oberg (1960), ranges from mild irritation to out-and-out panic... When _____ sets in, everything seems to go wrong... Even though _____ manifests itself in many different symptoms, it usually has these characteristics: -A sense of confusion over how to behave -A sense of surprise, even disgust, after realizing some of the features of the new culture -A sense of loss of old familiar surroundings (such as friends, possessions, and ways of doing things) -A sense of being rejected (or at least not accepted) by members of the new culture -A loss of self-esteem because the person does not seem to be functioning effectively -A feeling of impotence at having so little control of the situation -A sense of doubt when the person's own cultural values are brought into question Table 5.3 lists twenty-two symptoms of _____... The success or failure of an anthropological field project depends largely on how well ethnographers can make the psychological adjustment to the new culture and overcome the often debilitating effects of _____... *Summary*... 8. When cultural anthropologists conduct field research in cultures different from their own, they need to be flexible and should always expect the unexpected. Like anyone else trying to operate in an unfamiliar cultural setting, cultural anthropologists are susceptible to _____. --------------- *Definition* _____ - A psychological disorientation experienced when attempting to operate in a radically different cultural environment.

Preparing for Fieldwork

*Cultural Anthropology - Applied Perspective*... *Chapter 5: Methods in Cultural and Applied Cultural Anthropology*... *_____* (Preparing for Fieldwork) The popular image of a field anthropologist tends to be overly romanticized... Any fieldwork project lasting a year or longer may well require a minimum of a year's preparation. For a fieldwork project to be successful, an anthropologist must attend to many essential matters during this preparatory period. First, because doing fieldwork is expensive, it is necessary to obtain funding from a source that supports anthropological research, such as the Social Science Research Council, the National Science Foundation, or the Wenner-Gren Foundation... Second, preparation for fieldwork involves taking the proper health precautions... Third, if the field research is to be conducted in a foreign country (as is often the case), permission or clearance must be obtained from the host government... A fourth concern that must be addressed before leaving for the field is proficiency in the local language... Finally, a soon-to-be field anthropologist must take care of a host of personal details before leaving home. Arrangements must be made for: -the care of personal possessions such as houses, cars, and pets; -what to ship and what to purchase abroad; -children's education if families are involved; -equipment to purchase and insure, such as laptops, cameras, and recording devices; -up-to-date passports and international driving license; and -a schedule for transferring money between one's bank at home and a convenient bank in the host country. Recognizing these predeparture details should put an end to the illusion that fieldwork is a romantic holiday.

The Pains and Gains of Fieldwork

*Cultural Anthropology - Applied Perspective*... *Chapter 5: Methods in Cultural and Applied Cultural Anthropology*... *_____* (The Pains and Gains of Fieldwork) It should be clear by now that the process of direct fieldwork is central to cultural anthropology... An anthropologist in the field faces a number of anxiety-producing situations that can result in both stress and growth... The initial feeling of being overwhelmed by the fieldwork situation is more common than most anthropologists are willing to admit.

ethnographic fieldwork

*Cultural Anthropology - Applied Perspective*... *Chapter 5: Methods in Cultural and Applied Cultural Anthropology*... ...cultural anthropologists... ...are interested in documenting the enormous variety of ways of life found among the peoples of the world today... To answer these questions by providing both description and explanation, cultural anthropologists collect their data on site by engaging in fieldwork, which in anthropology is also referred to as _____.... The strong insistence on _____ has not always been an integral part of the discipline... *Summary* 1. Since the beginning of the twentieth century, cultural anthropologists have conducted their research in a firsthand manner by means of direct _____. Explicit discussion of how anthropologists actually do their fieldwork is a much more recent phenomenon, however. --------------- *Definition* _____ - Research carried out by cultural anthropologists among living peoples in other societies and among sub-cultures of our own society.

fieldwork

*Cultural Anthropology - Applied Perspective*... *Chapter 5: Methods in Cultural and Applied Cultural Anthropology*... A distinctive feature of present-day cultural anthropology is the reliance on _____ as the primary way of conducting research... As a research strategy, anthropological _____ is eminently experiential, which means that cultural anthropologists learn while they work... Curiosity of the exotic and on small-scale, non-Western cultures was the focus of much of the early-twentieth-century _____ studies for cultural anthropologists... Because the credibility of any ethnographic study depends on its methodology, cultural anthropologists since the 1970s have been producing excellent accounts of their own _____ experiences and data-collection methods... *Summary*... 2. Preparations must be made before any _____ experience is begun, including securing research funds; taking adequate health precautions, such as getting immunizations; obtaining research clearance from the host government; gaining proficiency in the local language; and attending to a host of personal matters such as securing passports and visas, purchasing equipment and supplies, and making sure that one's affairs at home are in order... 5. Two general guidelines are applicable to most _____ situations. First, when an ethnographer introduces oneself to the local population, it is important to select a single role and use it consistently. Second, to firmly establish credibility with the local people, it is best to proceed slowly. --------------- *Definition* _____ - The practice in which an anthropologist is immersed in the daily life of a culture to collect data and test cultural hypotheses.

participant

*Cultural Anthropology - Applied Perspective*... *Chapter 5: Methods in Cultural and Applied Cultural Anthropology*... Any general discussion of how to do fieldwork is difficult because no two fieldwork situations are the same... Despite these differences, field anthropologists face some common concerns, problems, and issues. For example, everyone embarking on ethnographic fieldwork must make preparations before leaving home, gain acceptance into the community, select the most appropriate data-gathering techniques, understand how to operate within the local political structure, take precautions against investigator bias, choose knowledgeable _____s (also known as "cultural consultants" or "informants"), cope with culture shock, learn a new language, and be willing to reevaluate findings in light of new evidence. --------------- *Definition* _____ - A person who provides information about his or her culture to an ethnographic fieldworker.

participatory action research

*Cultural Anthropology - Applied Perspective*... *Chapter 5: Methods in Cultural and Applied Cultural Anthropology*... By the 1980s applied anthropologists, in particular, began to involve members of the cultural group they were studying with the project design, data collection, and data analyses. Involving local people in the applied research process is known as _____. --------------- *Definition* _____ - A mode of research in which the anthropologist and the community work together to understand the conditions that produce the community's problems to find solutions to those problems.

ethnography

*Cultural Anthropology - Applied Perspective*... *Chapter 5: Methods in Cultural and Applied Cultural Anthropology*... Even though anthropologists routinely conducted fieldwork for most of the twentieth century, they did not explicitly discuss their field techniques until quite recently. Before the 1960s, it was usual for anthropologists to produce a book on "their" people several years after returning from a fieldwork experience. Such a work is called an _____, an in-depth account of a people and their culture studied by an anthropologist who conducted the on-site fieldwork. --------------- *Definition* _____ - The anthropological description of a particular contemporary culture by means of direct fieldwork.

Qualitative data

*Cultural Anthropology - Applied Perspective*... *Chapter 5: Methods in Cultural and Applied Cultural Anthropology*... _____ are gathered from personal interviews, oral histories, observations, and interactions with community members. --------------- *Definition* _____ - People's words, actions, records, and accounts obtained from participant observation, interviews, group interviews, and relevant documents.

Quantitative data

*Cultural Anthropology - Applied Perspective*... *Chapter 5: Methods in Cultural and Applied Cultural Anthropology*... _____ are numerical data such as population trends, morbidity and mortality rates, household and community size, the numbers of births and marriages, landholding size, annual income and education levels, and any other data that can be counted. --------------- *Definition* _____ - The data that are counted and interpreted through statistical analyses.

Chapter 5: Methods in Cultural and Applied Cultural Anthropology

*Cultural Anthropology - Applied Perspective*... *_____* (Chapter 5: Methods in Cultural and Applied Cultural Anthropology)... Some anthropologists have dedicated their research to problem-oriented topics such as reforestation, nutrition, post-disaster events (earthquakes, tsunamis, and hurricanes), and resettlement... Even though cultural anthropologists have studied Western societies such as our own, they have not abandoned the essential features of ethnographic research, specifically of living among the people they study... Why do anthropologists choose to primarily use the ethnographic approach? First, the ethnographic approach takes a holistic view (see Chapter 1) by studying complete, functioning societies (for example, an urban neighborhood or a farming community). Second, the ethnographic approach depends on first-hand, experiential methods, which include face-to-face interactions with people within the culture... Like ethnographic anthropologists, applied anthropologists use similar methods to conduct their research.

Mapping

*Cultural Anthropology - Applied Perspective*... *Chapter 5: Methods in Cultural and Applied Cultural Anthropology*... *Data-Gathering Techniques*... *Additional Data-Gathering Techniques*... *Census Taking*... *_____*... *Document Analysis*... *Collecting Genealogies*... *Photography*

Structured

*Cultural Anthropology - Applied Perspective*... *Chapter 5: Methods in Cultural and Applied Cultural Anthropology*... *Data-Gathering Techniques*... *Interviewing*... *_____, Semistructured, and Unstructured Interviews* Ethnographic interviews may be unstructured, semi-structured, or _____, depending on the level of control retained by the interviewer... At the other extreme [relative to unstructured interviews] are _____ interviews, in which the interviewer asks all participants exactly the same set of questions, in the same sequence, and preferably under the same set of conditions... _____ interviews... have the advantage of producing large quantities of data that are comparable and thus lend themselves well to more rapid statistical analyses, yet much less qualitative data [compared to unstructured interviews]... *Summary*... 7... In _____ interviews, interviewers ask the same questions of all respondents, in the same order, and under the same set of social conditions. --------------- *Definition* _____ interviews - An ethnographic data-gathering technique in which large numbers of participants are asked a set of specific questions.

Participant Observation

*Cultural Anthropology - Applied Perspective*... *Chapter 5: Methods in Cultural and Applied Cultural Anthropology*... *Data-Gathering Techniques*... *_____* It seems only fitting to start a discussion of data-gathering techniques with _____ because anthropologists use this method more than any other single technique and more extensively than any other social science discipline. _____—as the name implies—means becoming involved in the culture under study while making systematic observations of what people actually do... From the first day of fieldwork, gaining entry into the community presents some challenges for participant observers... *Guidelines for _____* By and large an anthropologist conducting _____ fieldwork for the first time has received little instruction in how to cope with these initial problems of resistance... First, because a participant observer is interested in studying people at the grassroots level, it is always advisable to work one's way down the political hierarchy... Second, when introducing oneself, one should select a particular role and use it consistently... A third general piece of advice for most fieldworkers is to proceed slowly... There are compelling reasons for not rushing into asking highly specific questions from day one. First, because most fieldworkers have such an imperfect understanding of the culture during the initial weeks and months they live in a community, they often do not know enough to even ask the right types of specific questions. And, second, the quality of one's data will vary directly with the amount of social groundwork the anthropologist has been able to lay. In other words, fieldworkers must invest a considerable amount of time and energy generating rapport by allowing the local people to get to know them... Fourth, anthropologists must communicate to the local people, in a genuine way, that they are like students, wanting to learn more about a subject on which the participants or community members are the experts... *Advantages of _____* Using _____ has certain methodological advantages for enhancing the quality of the data obtained. For example, people in most cultures appreciate any attempt on the part of an anthropologist to live according to the rules of their culture... Another major advantage of _____ is that it enables anthropologists to distinguish between normative and real behavior—that is, between what people say they do and what people actually do... *Disadvantages of _____* On the other hand, _____ poses certain methodological problems that can jeopardize the quality of the data. For example, the nature of _____ precludes a large sample size... A second problem with _____ is that the data are often hard to code or categorize, which makes synthesizing and comparing the data more challenging. Third, participant observers face special problems when recording their observations because it may be difficult, if not impossible, to record notes while attending a circumcision ceremony, participating in a feast, or chasing through the forest after a wild pig... And, finally, a major methodological shortcoming of _____ is that it has an obtrusive effect on the thing that is being studied. *Interviewing*... *Additional Data-Gathering Techniques*... *Applied Field Methods*... *Summary*... 6. The _____ technique has certain methodological advantages, including building rapport and allowing an anthropologist to distinguish between real and normative behaviors. _____ is not without its methodological shortcomings, however. It is time-consuming, poses problems of data comparability, presents difficulties in recording data, and may interfere with the thing that is being studied.

Selecting a research problem, Formulating a research design, Collecting the data, Analyzing the data, Interpreting the data

*Cultural Anthropology - Applied Perspective*... *Chapter 5: Methods in Cultural and Applied Cultural Anthropology*... *Stages of Field Research* Although no two fieldwork experiences are the same, every study should progress through the same five basic stages: 1. ___1___ 2. ___2___ 3. ___3___ 4. ___4___ 5. ___5___ Rather than describing these stages in abstract terms, we will discuss them within the framework of an actual fieldwork project: the Jamaica Agroforestry Project (JAP) conducted by Andreatta (one of the authors) during the early 1990s... In describing these five stages of field research, there is a risk of portraying the research process as a neat, precise, and systematic process. In reality, doing fieldwork is messier than is often admitted... *Summary*... 3. Although every fieldwork project in cultural anthropology has its own unique character, all projects go through the same basic stages: ___1___, ___2___, ___3___, ___4___, and ___5___.

Research Design

*Cultural Anthropology - Applied Perspective*... *Chapter 5: Methods in Cultural and Applied Cultural Anthropology*... *Stages of Field Research*... *Stage 2: Formulating a _____* The _____ is the overall strategy for conducting the research. --------------- *Definition* _____ - The overall strategy for conducting research.

Accountability

*Cultural Anthropology - Applied Perspective*... *Chapter 5: Methods in Cultural and Applied Cultural Anthropology*... *_____* (Accountability) All anthropologists—be they applied or ethnographic in their approach to fieldwork—are accountable to the people with whom they study... *Summary*... 10. All anthropologists, be they applied or ethnographic in their approach to fieldwork, are accountable to the people with whom they study. The published insights from the research should not bring harm to the people who are the subjects of the field study or beneficiaries of a project.

community-based participatory research (CBPR)

*Cultural Anthropology - Applied Perspective*... *Chapter 5: Methods in Cultural and Applied Cultural Anthropology*... Involving local people in the applied research process is known as participatory action research... Today this method is referred to as _____... *Data-Gathering Techniques*... *Applied Field Methods*... -_____... -Rapid ethnographic assessment (REA)... -Surveys... -Focus groups... --------------- *Definition* _____ - A collaboration involving partners from within a community in all aspects of the research process. Most importantly, _____ begins with a research topic of importance to the community and works toward achieving social change equitably.