Fieldwork in Anthropology

Question 1

Quantitative Research

Answer 1

Research methods that involve the generation of statistical data.

Survey, Census

Question 2

Qualitative Research

Answer 2

Research methods that aim to explore, rather than measure various phenomena.

Interviews, Focus Groups. Participant Observation

Question 3

Why Qualitative?

Answer 3

Concerned with the outliers

Want to understand WHY
people do what they do

Establishes trust and rapport
with communities

Question 4

Ethnographic fieldwork

Answer 4

A research method in which sociocultural anthropologists have intensive, long-term engagements with groups of people.

Question 5

Participant observation

Answer 5

a part of fieldwork that involves participating in daily tasks and observing daily interactions among a group

Question 6

Etic perspective

Answer 6

analysis of an aspect of culture using comparative categories, explanations, and interpretation from an outside perspective

Question 7

Emic perspective

Answer 7

“insider’s perspective,” trying to understand a cultural issue from the point of view of that culture

Question 8

Armchair anthropology

Answer 8

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

Question 9

Some famous armchair anthropologists:

Answer 9

Edward Tylor

Emilie Durkheim

Marcel Mauss

Question 10

Founders of ethnography and participant observation:

Answer 10

Bronislaw Malinowski

Franz Boas

Question 11

History of Anthropology and Ethnography

Answer 11

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)

Question 12

Problems with early Ethnography

Answer 12

Power structures
Race
Class
Gender

Usually missing perspective of women

Cultures described “completely” using limited information

Question 13

Malinowski – Founder of Ethnography

Answer 13

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

Question 14

Franz Boas – Salvage Anthropology

Answer 14

Interested in documentation of Indigenous people in North America

Trying to “preserve” cultures before they disappeared

Question 15

Studying own culture

Answer 15

Field sites no longer restricted to non-Western contexts

Not traveling to a far away field site

Can be a part of studied group

Question 16

Studying “up”

Answer 16

Not always unequal power relationship

Example: studying corporate culture

Question 17

Asking different questions

Answer 17

Globalization

Postcolonialism and
Neocolonialism

Power relations

Ethical problems

Question 18

Multi-sited fieldwork

Answer 18

Looks at issues from various sites and perspectives

Example: Nancy Scheper-Hughes studying global trafficking of organs

Question 19

Technology

Answer 19

Conducting fieldwork online

Can supplement in-person fieldwork or stand alone

Question 20

How has fieldwork stayed the same?

Answer 20

Ethnography

Anthropologists still mostly flow from former colonial powers to former colonies

Ethical issues

Question 21

ethics

Answer 21

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?

Question 22

Informed Consent

Answer 22

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.

Question 23

Institutional ethics review

Answer 23

Standardized by institution

Meant to provide protection for studied group and institution

Question 24

Ethics review for protected populations

Answer 24

First Nations and other Indigenous groups

Children, prisoners, refugees, pregnant women, etc

Question 25

Researcher’s responsibility is to informants

Answer 25

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

Question 26

Anthropologists’ presence in the field affects the lives of research participants

Answer 26

Changes behavior while being studied

Can cause disruption in power structures, practices, etc.

Written ethnography informs perspectives of the studied group