Antropology Module 1

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Fieldwork

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The ethnographer generally begins by studying the historical context of the people being studied , and the literature written about them. He or she learns the language in order to participate and communicate with the community in the most immediate way. Fieldwork often involves specificity in terms of what is studied. After procuring funding, going to the field site and becoming somewhat familiar with the community. Participant observation is the central way of doing this.

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Ethnographic method

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The process of immersing oneself in a culture is the most effective way in which other people see the world, interact with it, and interact in it. Also provides a check on the ethnographers and his or her culture's preconceptions and beliefs.

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Ethnographic present

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The ethnographic representation of cultures, and societies at a particular moment in time. The concept was meant as a means of calibrating time frames, and so adding precision to descriptions. However, the concept has been criticized for leading to misleading portrayals of societies as though they were frozen in time, outside any historical context, and without reference to neighbouring societies or encapsulating states.

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Participant observation

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Long term intimate interaction with relatively small groups of people, which may allow the ethnographer to delve deeply into the complexities and subtleties of a community's social life. Anthropologists spend long periods of time living in the communities they study, sharing their lives to as an extent as possible.

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Emic

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Cultural representations from the point of view of the studied/ native people.

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Etic

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Cultural representations from the point of view of the observer of that particular native culture.

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Historical Particularlism

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(Franz Boas) The perspective that every culture is unique and must be studied in terms of its own uniqueness. Each culture has its own historical trajectory and can only be understood from the particularities of that trajectory. Historical particularism refers to this detailed descriptive approach, designed as an alternative to the broad generalizing approach favoured by anthropologists

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Salvage Ethnography

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Rationalizes the study of smaller societies and traditional ways of life based on concern that these societies and traditions are fast disappearing. Early anthropologists focused on so called primitive societies: relatively small, non-western communities which anthropologists often assumed to be primitive and simple.

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Ethnocentrism

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The strong tendency to view other races or cultural groups in terms of the standards of ones own race or group. The belief that ones own ethnic group or culture is superior.