Fieldwork Methods: Going into the field

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  • Created by: Heather
  • Created on: 20-12-16 13:02
What is 'Going into the field'?
An initiation rite for most cultural anthropologists
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Typically, where does the anthropologist live/stay?
In the community with the people whom they wish to study,
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Typically, how would anthropologists communicate?
Communication would normally be in a language completely foreign to the researcher,
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Increasingly where have anthropologists suggested work can be done in relation to language?
Work can be done in their own local communities, involving their native language,
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What has ethnographic fieldwork traditionally involved?
A lone researcher (or also with his family) going into a cultural context very different from their own,
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What is the length of time anthropologists study there?
Usually one year at a minimum, and if often longer
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Where is the place of study in relation to their home?
Usually in a very remote place far from their home,
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However, where more recently have studies been done?
They have been done closer to home,
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Give an example of a close to home study based on socialisation?
A Danish anthropologist studied child socialisation in the primary school reception class of a rural community in North Leicestershire,
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Why has there been recent fieldwork in Greece since the 1950s?
Social and agricultural change in the Kopaidha region of central Greece,
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What does research often involve in Greece?
Research involves brief trips to different villages to inter-view individuals or small groups,
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What is culture shock that many researchers experience?
It is a combination of isolation, home-sickness, anxiety and the strange cultural mileu which makes it hard to relate with others
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Give an example of culture shock with Napoleon Chagnon who studied the Yanomamo?
"I was horrified. What kind of welcome was this for the person who had come to live with you and learn your way of life, to be friends with you?"
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What are two reasons why cultural shock may occur?
1) Food is often completely alien, 2) knowledge of the host culture's language is often rudimentary or even existent- hence even basic needs may be hard to express
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What are the four stages of the culture shock curve and the amount of happiness in this level?
1) Before leaving- Influxuation, 2) Honeymood period- High happiness 3) Crisis time- Low happiness 4) Adaptation- Levelling happiness
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However, when is the adaptation stage reached?
A few anthropologists never reach the cultural adaptation phase mentioned,
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Therefore how is the experience for many researchers?
Fieldwork is a fundamentally traumatic experience which they never wish to repear
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However, what can other discover about fieldwork?
It is immensely pleasurable,
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What is the overall feeling for most anthropologists and their first fieldwork?
It is a completely unforgettable experience which leaves them noticeably changed people,
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What is participant observation?
It involves residence within the community and/or among the people one wishes to research into,
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What subject areas does this approach to data gathering in ethnographic research differentiate from?
Sociological research
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While in some places residence within a host community is unavoidable, where will the researcher live when researching poor areas of a city?
They will normally reside within that part of the city rather than in some more westernised or middle class section of the city,
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Why do they do this based on participation?
As it allows participation in the life of the community, and emphasises to the local population that one 'belongs',
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What is the problem with living outside the community?
It would place a greater distance between fieldworker and community participation would be less easy,
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However, what is generally not possible in the life of community?
Full participation
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What must the researcher do to maintain a sort of perspective?
They must preserve a cultural distance from the host culture,
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What is much easier for the researcher from a base within the community than from outside?
Participating in as many aspects of life of the community as possible,
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Their participation at what kind of group events allows the researcher to do what?
-Rituals, social events, meetings of local groups, work groups etc. -Allows the researcher to document many aspects of the life of the community,
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Give an example of a researcher's involvement in West Africa?
In Ghana, the researcher was to be the horn blower in the Obo Court
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What are three advantages of Participant observation?
1) Data not otherwise available, 2) Ability to see culture "from the inside", 3) a life changing experience,
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What are four disadvantages of Participant observation?
1) Potential danger e.g. death, 2) You work with a small number of informants, 3) People lie to you, 4) Not all life changing experiences are good,
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What does much fieldwork involve, especially in the earlier stages?
It is often simple observation with very little direct participation,
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How is fieldwork described? (3)
Causal, informal and unintrusive,
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Why is it useful for the researcher to observe at first based on language?
AS the researcher's linguistic abilities are likely to be limited,
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Why is it also useful for the researcher to observe based on cultural rules?
AS it allows the researcher to establish his place in the community gradually and carefully, with less risk of breaking important cultural rules,
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However, what is the problem with just observation?
Many aspects of culture cannot be understood by simple observation,
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What does the researcher need to ask people, and so what other form of research is needed?
-They will need to ask people about a wide range of aspects of their life, -Hence the need for interviews,
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What is an interview for anthropologists?
It is obtaining and gathering information from informants or consultants within the context of participant observation,
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Why do different anthropologists have different ways of "interviewing"?
They depend on the personal preferences of the researcher and also on the cultural context of the research situation,
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What are the two ways interviews can be conducted?
1) Very formal- The anthropologists asking a series of pre-set questions, while taking notes on answers or recording the interview 2) Less formal- A simple conversation and a record made after,
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When is it often easiest for anthropologists to ask questions?
It is easier to question about an activity which is going on at the same time e.g. kinship information at a wedding,
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For data storage and retrieval, what is the problem with individual items of data?
They often make very little sense by themselves,
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What is needed for this problem to be stopped?
The information need to be fitted into a pattern with other items of information,
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Are all snippets of information recorded?
Yes, often almost immediately on an electronic device e.g. recording, but all must be written down,
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What is needed for the researcher for all these pages of information?
A form of data retrieval or organisation system is needed,
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What happens if patterns of information emerge in the field?
The researcher can confirm or modify their ideas via further interviews,
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When do some patterns only emerge from the field data during futher anaylsis?
After leaving the field or long after fieldwork is complete,
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What are the two type of ethnographic research when anthroplogists have historical studies?
-Recall ethnography -Ethnohistory,
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What are the differences between the two?
Recall history is dependent primarily on interview whereas ethnohistory is heavily dependent on documentary sources,
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What does recall ethnographic research involve?
It involves asking older members of the community what life was like in the past, and even what they were told by their parents,
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What other type of research history is used to learn about the informant's family history?
Oral history,
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What researcher used oral history and for what purpose?
Napoleon Chagnon -He used it to document macro-movements of specific Yanomamo groups over considerable distances over an approximately 125 year period,
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For another example, how did the Greeks use oral history to explain their housing situation?
Inhabitants of Methana in Greece explained that their villages were built at a distance from the sea because in the distant past there was a threat of pirate raids,
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What does their oral history tell us about food storage?
People used to store the bulk of their food in inconspicuous store houses away from villages for the same reason,
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What does ethnohistory involve?
The use of documentary sources to study past socio-cultural system,s
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How do some people argue ethnohistorys are written by who and for who?
Some argue accounts of non-literate societies are written by members of other, literate societies e.g. missionaries, traders, government officials,
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Give an example of where this happened and why?
In Latin American areas where very large numbers of US anthropologists have gone to study- The area was colonised by the Spanish
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However, why is this view dangerous?
it implies that all indigenous groups studied by anthropologists were entirely illeterate and almost all study is primitive,
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However, often how is ethnohistory and recall ethnography used?
Together and combined to build up the best picture of the past of a society,
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Where was documentary research done?
Ermionidha
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Who are interviews often with and the feel of them?
-Loosely structured -They have a wide range of local inhabitants in several communities about how life had changed
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