Ethnographic Fieldwork Long-term residence with a small group of people

1. Ethnographic Fieldwork Long-term residence with a small group of people participation, structured & unstructured interviewing “Fieldwork is the central activity of anthropology. It is fieldwork, more than common theories or substantive issues, that distinguishes anthropology from psychology, sociology, political science, and economics. It is fieldwork, more than the distinctive content of the material, that produces the uniqueness of anthropology and that entitles the anthropologist to professional status.” Nancy Howell, Surviving Fieldwork

2. Participant-observation Living with the people Participating in their lives Subjective understanding Participate/emic, and observe/etic “[T]o some extent, the anthropologist who genuinely participates in a cultural practice can take himself as a subject. One cannot have access to the inner reaches of those to whom one talks; one can have partial access to one’s own, and through involvement at least begin to understand what some of the others may have been experiencing.” Tanya Luhrmann, Persuasions of the Witch’s Craft

3. 19th-century ‘Armchair Anthropologists’ • Relied on missionaries, explorers, travelers, diplomats for descriptions of ‘exotic’ peoples • Superficial and/or biased, but nonetheless useful as historical documents • Distinction between collection of data and its analysis by anthropologists • Two 19th– century Anthropologists • Edward B. Tylor, James Frazer

4. Ethnographic FieldworkLate 19th - Early 20th Century • Long-term fieldwork, participant observation • First anthropological expedition: A. C. Haddon (U.K.) • 1898-1899 Torres Strait Expedition Southeastern New Guinea • Franz Boas (Columbia, U.S.) • Bronislaw Malinowski (LSE, U.K.) • Socio-cultural reality vs. speculative theories • Studied small-scale, non-Western societies

5. Culture shock • Stress • Disorientation • Disgust • Confusion • Doubts • Bicultural perspective • Able to view world in two different ways • Both emic and etic

6. Comparison • Differences • Source • Connections to other aspects of culture • E.g. concepts of the person • Universals • Commonalities among all cultures • Generalizations • 2 kinds • Statistical cross-cultural comparison • Controlled comparison

7. Statistical Cross-cultural Comparison • HRAF – Human Relations Area Files • Massive bank of ethnographic data • George P. Murdock (Yale 1940s) • Large samples • Correlations • Beatrice Whiting • Witchcraft in 50 societies • No centralized authority  witchcraft accusations • Quantitative vs. Qualitative • Large, dispersed sample vs. small, regional • Data removed from cultural context • Reliability of data questionable • The Internet

8. Controlled Comparison • Retain context, qualitative • Small number of similar cultures, small differences • S. F. Nadel– witchcraft in 4 African societies 1930s • Nigeria • Nupe: women’s power  witchcraft accusations • Gwari: male dominance  both sexes accused • Frustration-aggression hypothesis • Sudan • Property rights and enjoyment of life linked to age • Mesakin men old at 25  frustration  witchcraft beliefs • Korongo men old in 50s  no tension  no witchcraft

9. Anthropology’s Roots • Ancient travel writers • Herodotus (484-425 BCE) • Greek “Father of History” • Precursor of ethnography • Marco Polo - Italian (1254-1324) • IbnKhaldun (1332-1406) • Tunisian politician & historian • Developed ‘Science of culture’ • European exploration, colonial expansion 15th–19th centuries • Age of Discovery/Age of Exploration The modern study of anthropology originated in European exploration and colonization in the Americas, Asia, Africa, and the Pacific. Contacts with very different peoples created an interest in understanding and explaining human diversity, which are the goals of anthropology.

10. First Academic Anthropology • U.K.: 1884 Oxford • U.S.: 1896 Columbia E.B. Tylor Franz Boas

11. Anthropological Theory • Statement about relationships among phenomena • Explain and predict • Nadel’s theory regarding witchcraft accusations • Observation: similar cultures, but difference in witchcraft accusations • Hypothesis: • tension  retaliation • frustration-aggression • Explains Nupe & Gwari: women’s power • Predicts Mesakin & Korongo: inheritance patterns

12. Development of Anthropological Theory: 19th-century Evolutionists • Philosophers: Hobbes, Rousseau, Adam Smith (18th-19th century) • Auguste Comte 1798-1857 • Organic analogy • Society has organs like a biological organism • Function of one determined by its place in whole • Charles Darwin 1809-1882 • Biological evolution • Natural selection  increasing fitness • Change is result of competition

13. Herbert Spencer (1820-1903) • Developed organic analogy  social evolution • Social progress = evolution of social systems • Struggle for survival • “Survival of the fittest” • Simple  complex • Least complex societies: many similar parts • Most complex societies: interdependent parts of whole • All societies follow same developmental sequence • Societies classified by degree of complexity • Less complex societies give clues to evolutionary past