1. © 2007 McGraw-Hil Higher Education. All right reserved. Mirror for Humanity Conrad Phillip Kottak Fifth Edition Chapter 2 Ethics and Methods

2. © 2007 McGraw-Hil Higher Education. All right reserved. Overview Anthropological ethics Research methods in cultural anthropology –Ethnographic techniques –Evolution of ethnography –Survey research

3. © 2007 McGraw-Hil Higher Education. All right reserved. CHAPTER 2 Ethics and Methods Ethics and anthropology –Proper relations with host nations, regions, and communities –AAA Code of Ethics Informed consent Collaborative relationships Inclusion of host country colleagues in planning, funding requests, and dissemination of results “Giving something back”

4. © 2007 McGraw-Hil Higher Education. All right reserved. CHAPTER 2 Ethics and Methods Research methods –Cultural anthropology and sociology Share interest in social relations, organization, and behavior Sociology traditionally focused on large, industrialized Western nations –Questionnaires, collection of masses of quantifiable data –Reliance on sampling and statistical techniques Anthropology traditionally focused on small, nonliterate populations –Ethnographic techniques

5. © 2007 McGraw-Hil Higher Education. All right reserved. CHAPTER 2 Ethics and Methods Ethnography –Firsthand, personal study of local cultural settings –Extended period of time in a given society or community –Holistic approach – attempt to understand the totality of a particular culture

6. © 2007 McGraw-Hil Higher Education. All right reserved. CHAPTER 2 Ethics and Methods Ethnographic techniques –Observation and participant observation Awareness and recording of details from daily events Establishment of rapport with hosts Participant observation – taking part in the activities being observed

7. © 2007 McGraw-Hil Higher Education. All right reserved. CHAPTER 2 Ethics and Methods Ethnographic techniques –Conservation, interviewing, and interview schedules Various types of ethnographic interviews –Undirected conversation –Open-ended interviews focusing on specific topics –Formal interviews using a predetermined schedule of questions

8. © 2007 McGraw-Hil Higher Education. All right reserved. CHAPTER 2 Ethics and Methods Ethnographic techniques –The genealogical method Procedures used to discover and record connections of kinship, descent, and marriage Genealogy essential to social organization of nonindustrial societies Genealogical data help anthropologists understand current social relations and reconstruct history

9. © 2007 McGraw-Hil Higher Education. All right reserved. CHAPTER 2 Ethics and Methods Ethnographic techniques –Key cultural consultants (key informants) – people who can provide the most complete or useful information about particular aspects of life

10. © 2007 McGraw-Hil Higher Education. All right reserved. CHAPTER 2 Ethics and Methods Ethnographic techniques –Life histories Reveal how specific people perceive, react to, and contribute to changes that affect their lives Illustrate diversity within a given community

11. © 2007 McGraw-Hil Higher Education. All right reserved. CHAPTER 2 Ethics and Methods Ethnographic techniques –Local beliefs and perceptions versus those of the ethnographer Emic (native-oriented) approach –How local people perceive and categorize the world – what is meaningful to them –Emic perspective provided by cultural consultants (informants) Etic (science-oriented) approach –Emphasizes categories, explanations, and interpretations the anthropologist considers important

12. © 2007 McGraw-Hil Higher Education. All right reserved. CHAPTER 2 Ethics and Methods Evolution of ethnography –Bronislaw Malinowski Father of ethnography Salvage ethnography – recording cultures threatened by Westernization Ethnographic realism –Style of “classic” ethnographies written by Malinowski and his contemporaries –Ethnographic present All aspects of culture are intertwined Emphasized importance of emic perspective

13. © 2007 McGraw-Hil Higher Education. All right reserved. CHAPTER 2 Ethics and Methods Evolution of ethnography –Interpretive anthropology (e.g., Clifford Geertz) Cultures as meaningful texts “read” by natives Anthropologists must decipher cultural meanings Meanings carried by public symbolic forms (e.g., words, rituals, customs)

14. © 2007 McGraw-Hil Higher Education. All right reserved. CHAPTER 2 Ethics and Methods Evolution of ethnography –Experimental anthropology Questioning traditional goals, methods, and styles of ethnography (e.g., ethnographic realism, salvage ethnography) Ethnographies as literary creations –Ethnographers as mediators – communicate information from “natives” to readers Reflexive ethnography – includes personal feelings and reactions of ethnographer-writer Ethnographic present viewed as unrealistic construct –Earlier ethnographies inaccurately portrayed native cultures as unchanging and isolated –Now recognized that cultures constantly change – ethnographic accounts apply to particular moments

15. © 2007 McGraw-Hil Higher Education. All right reserved. CHAPTER 2 Ethics and Methods Ethnographic techniques –Problem-oriented ethnography Most ethnographers investigate a specific problem (although they remain interested in the whole context of human behavior) Collection of data on range of variables (e.g., population density, environmental quality, climate, physical geography, diet, land use)

16. © 2007 McGraw-Hil Higher Education. All right reserved. CHAPTER 2 Ethics and Methods Ethnographic techniques –Longitudinal Research Long-term study of a community, region, society, culture, or other unit, usually based on repeated visits Increasingly common Often conducted by research teams –Team research – multiple ethnographers conducting complimentary research in a given community, culture, or region

17. © 2007 McGraw-Hil Higher Education. All right reserved. CHAPTER 2 Ethics and Methods Culture, space, and scale –Anthropologists increasingly study flows of people, technology, images, and information Ethnographic fieldwork becoming more flexible, large- scale, multi-timed, and multi-sited Greater attention paid to: –“Outsiders” (e.g., migrants, refugees, tourists, developers) –External organizations and forces (e.g., governments, businesses, NGOs) –Power differentials –Diversity within cultures and societies

18. © 2007 McGraw-Hil Higher Education. All right reserved. CHAPTER 2 Ethics and Methods Culture, space, and scale –Effects of electronic mass media on local cultures and perspectives –Anthropologists increasingly study people in motion (e.g., nomads, seasonal migrants, homeless and displaced people, immigrants, refugees)

19. © 2007 McGraw-Hil Higher Education. All right reserved. CHAPTER 2 Ethics and Methods Survey research –Survey methodologies are increasingly common in anthropological studies of large-scale societies –Complement more traditional ethnographic techniques –Collection and statistical analysis of data from a representative sample of a larger population –Goal is to draw inferences about larger population –Considerably more impersonal than ethnography –Ethnography can be used to supplement, fine-tune survey research