in an hour and a half

AN 181 Andreatta and Ferraro

Chapter 4 Lecture Outline

Anthropological Theory and Methods

PART I

I. Anthropological theory, general

II. Anthropological theories

A. Evolutionism

B. Diffusionism

C. American Historicism

D. Functionalism

E. Psychological Anthropology

F. Neoevolutionism

G. French Structuralism

H. Ethnoscience

I. Feminist Anthropology

J. Cultural Materialism

K. Postmodernism

PART II

I. Ethnographic Methods

A. ethnographic fieldwork

1. principle method of gathering ethnographic data (ethnographic: a

description of another people’s way of life)

2. characteristics

a. inductive

b. exploratory

c. descriptive

d. relational

3. goal: plot the interrelationships of organized complexity (not chaos)

4. assumptions

a. all observed behavior is related to everything else (holism)

b. people behave rationally according to a set of values and

understandings about the world

c. must limit scope and focus for field studies

B. ethnography and ethnology

C. qualitative data

D. quantitative data

II. Fieldwork preparation

A. funding

B. health

C. permission(s) and logistics

D. language training

E. personal details

AN 181 Andreatta and Ferraro

Chapter 4 Lecture Outline

III. Stages of field research

A. research problem

B. research design

C. data collection

D. analysis

E. interpretation of data

IV. Conducting fieldwork

A. theory and fieldwork influence each other

B. establishing and building rapport

C. personal relationships

1. key informants

2. reciprocity (material and other ways)

D. techniques

1. participant-observation

a. engagement

b. detachment

2. interviewing

3. mapping

4. document analysis

5. photography

6. applied field methods

E. acquiring new socio-cultural perspective

F. the “writing desk”

V. Challenges and ethics of fieldwork

A. moral dilemma of exploitation, reciprocity and benefits

B. authority

C. representation

D. advocacy

E. translating cultural categories and perspectives

VI. Evolution of fieldwork

A. Bronislaw Malinowski (1884 – 1942)

1. Originator of modern ethnographic fieldwork methods

2. worked in the Trobriand Islands

B. Malinowski’s “proper” conditions for doing fieldwork:

1. total immersion in the field

2. use of native “texts” and language

3. exhaustive observations

4. interviews in the native language

C. new developments in fieldwork

1. small-scale to complex societies

2. ethnic groups, politics, and nation-states

3. globalization and world systems

AN 181 Andreatta and Ferraro

Chapter 4 Lecture Outline

D. Postmodernism and the problem of reflexivity

1. Who am I to be doing this?

2. What authority do I have to represent these people?

3. What social and cultural baggage to I bring with me to the encounter?

4. How am I positioned in this society?

5. What reality am I perceiving and how is it influenced by the reality my

own culture gives me?