Not to be reproduced, copied or forwarded.

On the Conduct of Inquiry

Major method of research

• Fieldwork, or

• Participant observation

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On Participant Observation

“If our understanding of other societies has improved over the last century, it is not because we have ‘sat around a table exchanging ideas’ but because we have collected a ‘special kind of evidence by a special method.’ . . . Understanding is gained not just by observation, but by participation (being, in a way, a Nuer), interpreting not just with the mind, but with the heart and ‘the whole personality.’”

----George Stocking, reviewing a book on fieldwork(1992), p. 400

Previous methods of research

Armchair anthropology Verandah anthropology

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Bronislaw Malinowski

1884 - 1942

http://www.d.umn.edu/cla/faculty/troufs/anth1604/video/Verandah.htmlMiller, B., (2007). Cultural Anthropology. Pearson Education: Boston.

Not to be reproduced, copied or forwarded. Malinowski, B. (1964). Argonauts of the Western Pacific. London.

Not to be reproduced, copied or forwarded. Malinowski, B. (1964). Argonauts of the Western Pacific. London.

Not to be reproduced, copied or forwarded.

Long-Term Participation

Pros• Enhances rapport• Enters a particular social

position• Overcomes Hawthorne effect,

in which participants change their behavior to conform to the perceived expectations of the researcher

• Allows “way of life” to be deeply felt and understood (in the bones) of the ethnographer

Cons• One cannot be

everywhere, so one needs to choose where to be

• One’s role opens and closes possibilities

• Difficult to obtain standardized comparable data

• Takes a lot of time

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Observation

• An ethnographer needs to find out how much his or her own experience is true for others

• An ethnographer needs to take notes and record conversation (something that regular participants wouldn’t do)

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Looking for patterns

• What is present here? (descriptive pattern of central tendency)

• Why is this pattern present here? (associational patterns)

• What is the range of variations?

Not to be reproduced, copied or forwarded.

Not to be reproduced, copied or forwarded.

In addition to participant observation….

• Talking with people• Life history• Photography and video• Collecting songs, speeches, jokes, myths, and stories• Archival or historical sources• Census data• Genealogies• Maps • Letters and columns in newspapers• Triangulation of data

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When the procession of Our Lady of Fatima passed, in Marcara, Peru, the social structure was reflected in the

crowd