Anthro 3 Chapter 3

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

Veranda anthropology (late 19th century to early 20th century)

Anthropologists working for colonial governments

qualitative data

Nonstatistical information such as personal life stories and customary beliefs and practices.

Research that is community-based and politically involved is called ________.

advocacy anthropology

A worldwide interconnected landscape with multiple intertwining and overlapping peoples and cultures on the move is known as a(n) ________.

globalscape

The hallmark of anthropological methods since the early twentieth century has been __________.

holistic research through fieldwork with participant observation

A research method in which one learns about a group's beliefs and behaviors through social participation and personal observation within the community is called ________.

participant observation

anthropologists rely on _____________

participant observation

Anthropologists use ________.

qualitative and quantitative data

Informed consent must always be written to ensure absolute cooperation. T/F

true

It is often an indication of acceptance when anthropologists are given kinship terms by the people they are studying. T/F

true

Peasants are the largest social category of humans in the world. T/F

true

The most important anthropological research tool by far is participant observation. T/F

true

There is a difference between ideal and real behaviors. T/F

true

applied anthropology came into the fore in the 1930s as dominant societies tried to __________

understand traditional indigenous cultures in order to control them more effectively

informal interviews

unstructured, open-ended conversations in everyday life

Ethnographic research that documents endangered cultures is known as ________.

urgent anthropology

colonialism

(1870-1930) system by which a dominant society politically claims and controls a foreign territory primarily for the purposes of settling and economic exploitation

How have anthropologists attempted to address the negative effects of massive cultural change imposed on less powerful groups by elite cultures?

-1950s: anthropologists began studying peasants to understand the impact of complex state societies on traditional indigenous peoples -recognize that their knowledge could be used to help people in ways defined by the people themselves -some anthropologists have urged studying up to reveal how elite function in maintaining their positions

How have ethnographic research approaches changed and expanded since the discipline began?

-As a result of World War II and the Cold War era following, some anthropologists began studies of cultures at a distance, developing national character studies through investigating film, literature, and newspapers -Anthropologists began broadening their focus, including turning their attention to modern state societies and investigating their own countries, in settings ranging from factories to farming communities to suburban neighborhoods

Two leading armchair anthropologists

-Sir Edward Tylor -Sir James Frazer

what was the worldwide social context in which anthropology emerged as a discipline?

-anthropology emerged during colonialism (1870s-1930s)

what challenges do ethnographers face?

-culture shock and not being socially accepted by the society -anthropologists must avoid getting involved in political rivalries and unwittingly used by factions within the community -an ethnographer's age, ideology, ethnicity, or skin color may block access to a community's individuals or ideas -ethnographers may be in physical danger through illness, accident, and hostility -ethnographers grapple with challenge of bias or subjectivity -validating ethnographic research because access to sites may be limited or barred altogether

what is involved in doing ethnology?

-ethnography (provide basic data0 -theories -comparative method -The Human Relations Area Files

consequences of globalization

-formation of diasporic populations living and working far from their original homeland -given rise to multi-sited ethnography

how do anthropologists conduct their research today?

-participant observation -gather quantitative and qualitative data -formal or informal interviewing -ethnographic mapping -use cameras, notepads, computers, or sound recording devices to document observations

Challenges of Ethnographic Fieldwork

-social acceptance -distrust and political tension -gender, age, ideology, ethnicity, and skin color -physical danger -subjectivity, reflexivity, and validation

what is involved in producing an ethnographic study?

-written narratives, illustrated with photographs, maps, kinship diagrams and figures showing social and political organizational structures, settlement layout, seasonal cycles -today, sound recordings and film

key consultants (informants)

A member of the society being studied who provides information that helps researchers understand the meaning of what they observe may uses several members during the study to get at deferent component's of his research question

formal interview

A structured question-and-answer session, carefully annotated as it occurs and based on prepared questions.

materialist perspective

A theoretical approach stressing the primacy of infrastructure (material conditions) in cultural research and analysis.

Mentalist Perspective

A theoretical approach stressing the primacy of superstructure in cultural research and analysis; also known as the idealist perspective.

eliciting device

An activity or object used to draw out individuals that encourage them to recall and share information.

ethnographic fieldwork

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

culture shock

In fieldwork, the anthropologist's personal disorientation and anxiety that may result in depression.

Fieldwork-based anthropology (since the 1920s)

Modern cultural anthropology and Bronislaw Malinowski

Armchair anthropology (19th century)

Private scholars and first generation of university professors; Edward Tylor's Primitive Culture (1871); James Frazer's Golden Bough (1890-1915).

culture contact

Studying how traditional cultures change when coming in contact with expanding capitalist societies

quantitative data

Statistical or measurable information, such as demographic composition, the types and quantities of crops grown, or the ratio of spouses born and raised within or outside the community.

multi-sited ethnography

The investigation and documentation of peoples and cultures embedded in the larger structures of a globalizing world, utilizing a range of methods in various locations of time and space

ethnology

The study and analysis of different cultures from a comparative or historical point of view, utilizing ethnographic accounts and developing anthropological theories that help explain why certain important differences or similarities occur among groups.

Applied Anthropology

The use of anthropological knowledge and methods to solve practical problems in communities confronting new challenges

Why is it important to study peasants?

They are the largest social category in the world.

theory

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

Ethnography

a detailed description of a particular culture primarily based on firsthand observation and interaction

participant observation

a research method in which one learns about a group's behaviors and beliefs through social involvement and personal observation within the community, as well as interviews and discussion with individual members of the group over an extended stay in the community

What is another name for culture contact in the United States?

acculturation

Which of the following best defines applied anthropology? a. All of these. b. the use of anthropological knowledge and methods to solve practical problems in communities confronting new challenges c. the implementation of change into indigenous populations only in order to save and preserve them d. the use of anthropological techniques to better prepare populations for market research and the introduction of capitalism e. the application of anthropological types of change in order to help indigenous people develop further

b. the use of anthropological knowledge and methods to solve practical problems in communities confronting new challenges

a major step toward being accepted and gaining access to information is _______

being adopted into a network of kinship relations

What is the first step in doing ethnographic fieldwork?

choosing a research question

in the 1930s, anthropologists began studying ____________

culture contact

typically moving into a community with a culture unlike their own, most experience

culture shock and loneliness at least during the initial stages of their work

what are the ethical responsibilities in anthropological research?

ensure that anthropological research does not negatively impact the people being studied

studying up

ethnographic research in the world's centers of political and economic power

urgent anthropology

ethnographic research that documents endangered cultures; also known as salvage ethnography

Cultural anthropology is composed of which two scholarly components?

ethnography and ethnology

The members of a society who work most closely with the anthropologist to provide an understanding of cultural phenomena are called ________.

key consultants

what are the key theoretical perspectives in anthropology?

mentalist and materialist

advocacy anthropology

research that is community based and politically involved

expecting that indigenous cultures would disappear through impositions of colonialism, early anthropologists engaged in _________________

salvage ethnography (urgent anthropology)

Acculturation

the massive cultural change that occurs in a society when it experiences intensive firsthand contact with a more powerful society (industrialized or capitalist society)

Europeans focused on _____________________, whereas North Americans focused primarily on ________________

the study of traditional peoples in overseas colonies they controlled; the indigenous communities in their own countries

•Malinowski's accidental invention of modern anthropology

•1910 at LSE; 1914 going to New Guinea; WW I and his fieldwork in 1914-1918; his book Argonauts of the Western Pacific (1922).

Three principles of fieldwork-based anthropology:

•Living with local people for an extend period of time; •Participating in and observing people's everyday life; •Learning the local language.