Anthropology and its Methods: Fieldwork
Key Concepts: Fieldwork, Participant-Observation, Ethnography, Dispute
Resolution, Gift-giving, Culture Shock,
Ethics, Qualitative and Quantitative Reseach, Translation
Anthropology and Participant-Observation
To understand what anthropology is, look to what anthropologists do.
What anthropologists do is write ethnographies, i.e. detailed, holistic accounts of
the people they study.
The major method they use is participant-observation, i.e. a long period (no less
than 1 year) of living with and studying a community.
The goal is to describe a community ‘from the point-of-view of the people being
studied.
Fieldwork involves also at least a partial socialization into the values and beliefs
of the community being studied.
Some anthropologists never return.
This period of socialization also enables the anthropologist to at least partially
overcome some of her/his own cultural biases.
Some Characteristics of Participant-Observation
Involves initial language training, as ethnographers must interact with people
without the use of translators.
It also involves training in methods and concepts related to the ethnographer’s
specific topic, e.g. ethnobotany.
Initially it must include also the location of a community and permission from
host governments and the community itself.
It is considered to be a cultural immersion.
It depends for its success on winning the trust of the people being studied.
It relies more on gathering qualitative, rather than quantitative information.
Its major tool is dialogue, whether through structured interviews, semi-structured
interviews, focus groups, or casual conversation.
Example 1: A Dispute in Duo Donggo
Peter Just did his research among the Duo Donggo, an ethnic group numbering
about 20,000 in the highlands of Sumbawa, the second major island east of Bali
in the Indonesian archipelago, in the early 1980s.
 One of his friend’s relatives burst into the room, shouting that his sister in law,
Ina Mone had been assaulted by a young man, la Ninde.
Ama Tife, one of the principal elders of the village assured us that he and other
elders would convene a court and exact justice according to tradition.
The next morning, La Ninde was brought before a group of elders with most of
the village looking on.
Ina Mone showed her medicated face and torn shirt as evidence.
La Ninde admitted to having shouted at her, but denied having physically
assaulted her.
Under pressure from members of the community, he later confessed.
Punishment: assessed a minor fine and had to ask Ina Mone for fogiveness.
Later, a number of people stated that they did not believe that La Ninded was
guilty of having assaulted Ina Mone. ‘What La Ninde was convicted of was more
true than what really happened.’
Interpretation of the Dispute Resolution
Through later conversations, Peter learned that the dispute was really about the
fidelity of fiancees.
 Ina Mone and others had seen la Ninde flirting with la Fia, a young woman
betrothed to a man absent from the village.
Ina Mone had complained because her daughter was betrothed to a son of ama
Panci, whose second son was betrothed to la Fia. In retalitation, la Ninded had
verablly assaulted Ina Mone.
Question of individual guilt was not paramount in the elder’s minds.
Rather it was about restoring respect for the institution of betrothal and the
elders, as well as restoring peace in the community.
The interpretation of the dispute and its resolution also involves an implicit
comparison with our own legal system, which is much more concerned with
assessing *individual* guilt for a specific offence, and not about restoring respect
and harmony, at least not explicitly.
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How would other social sciences approach this dispute?
First, since sociology and history depend largely upon written accounts, this
dispute and its meaning would probably be invisible.
Even oral historians would probably not pick it up, since they interview people
AFTER events have occurred, and among the Duo Dongoo, cases settled are
not to be discussed.
Quantitative methods depend mainly upon written records or accounts found in
censuses and court records. Hence, the ‘local’ point of view often gets lost.
Example #2: Richard Lee’s gift of a Christmas ox to the !Kung
During the end of Lee’s first fieldwork among the !Kung, a group of foragers in
the Kalahari Desert of Botswana, he tried to reciprocate for the hospitality he had
received over the previous year by purchasing and giving them an ox for
feasting.
Despite the health of the ox he bought, he was constantly insulted over the
weeks before it was slaughtered that it was ‘too thin’, ‘had little meat’, was ‘a poor
specimen that would feed almost no-one’, etc.
Indeed, when it was finally slaughtered and distributed, it fed several families for
several days.
A little hurt, Lee inquired of his friends what was the *meaning* of the insults.
He was told that the !Kung always insult someone who has had a very good
hunt. The reason was that the !Kung tried to cool the pride of individual hunters
who did very well. This was because the !Kung had a strong ethic of reciprocity,
or of sharing amongst relatives. If a man became too proud, he could believe he
was self-sufficient, and cause social problems for the group, e.g. by refusing to
share his catch.
Hence, Lee had an ‘aha’ moment, in which he learnt how a pattern of insults was
related to !Kung economy and hunting activities.
Many anthropoogists have ‘aha’ moments like these, when a distinct pattern of
behaviour is shown to relate to an entire set of values and institutions. Many
anthropologists are told that the time to leave fieldwork is when everything makes
so much sense that it becomes not only understood, but expected.
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Other Methods in Anthropology
In the ‘classic’ period between 1900 and c. 1980, anthropologists typically
focused on small-scale societies. Hence, participant-observation alone could
provide fairly comprehensive information.
Anthropologists increasingly study ‘complex’ societies, including their own.
Hence, anthropologists now use a variety of methods, quantitative as well as
qualitative and have access and use written records, such as census material,
archival data, court records, etc.
For example, after arriving in a community, I usually administer a questionnaire
that relates to basic sociological information about the people living in that area
or community. This is followed up by structured and semi-structured interviews
with people who seem to be interested in the project. I also use census material,
archival material and maps. I also initially draw up a map of the community,
locating individuals and institutions. In India, I often collect kinship information
and draw up a genealogy of each family. Focus groups are also important on
specific issues. However, participant-observation often provides me with the
best material.
Other techniques that anthropologists use include audio recordings of speech
and music, photography, film, drawing, genaologies, mapping and census-taking,
collecting material culture or botanical or other natural samples.
Ethics in Fieldwork
First goal is ensure that the research does not harm the people who are being
studied and written about.
For example, John did not mention the presence of a military garrison in a
Guatemalan village that he studied in the early ’80s, and later he was criticized
by a geographer for this omission.
However, to have mentioned it would have made the location of the village quite
obvious during a period in which Guatemala was experiencing a civil war.
Anthropologists try as much as possible to use anonymity, i.e. but changing
names of people and places.
Ethical standards in fieldwork have increased since the 1980s.
Due to some ethical scandals, the most famous being the Camelot project, in
which anthropologists studying a Cambodian (Kampuchean) village unwittingly
took money from the CIA. This was during the Vietnam war.
Because anthropologists have traditionally worked with peoples who are most
vulnerable to colonialism, displacement by development, or genocide, some
become advocacy anthropologists.
Danger: Culture Shock
Many anthropologists find that their return to their home country produces more
culture shock than going there.
Some do not return, but remain in their fieldwork communities.
My own example: privacy and individualism in North America, lack of ‘privacy’
and the social connectedness of life in a north Indian village.
Critiques of Classic Ethnography, New Directions
Starting in the 1970s, there were increasing criticisms both within and without
anthropology that it was not ‘objective’, since each anthropologist is enculturated
into her/his own society.
Led to the recognition that there could be no 100% objective or complete
description of a culture.
Social life is too complex to capture it completely.
Since cultural values are often unconscious, it is impossible to eradicate them
completely.
Ethnography is a cultural ‘dialogue’ between ourselves and others and a
translation from one to the other. Always involves a comparative aspect.
New Ethnographic Practises
Recognition of the dialogic aspect through including individual subjects’ voices,
e.g. Nisa, The Story of a !Kung Woman.
Inclusion of conflicting voices and viewpoints to show that cultural values are not
uniform.
Inclusion of the biography of the anthropologist to show the reader the
background and goals of the study.
Direct conversations are included to show how the anthropologist arrived at
her/his information.
Reflections on western and ‘other’ viewpoints are often part of the text, e.g. In
the Realm of the Diamond Queen.
rd pronoun voice.
Ethnographies are no longer written in the passive, 3
Encouragement of minorities to become anthropologists.
More anthropologists studying ‘at home’. Special challenges.
Recognition that ethnography is really a process of translation. Just as there is
never a 100% perfect translation, so there cannot be a 100% perfect
ethnographic description.
However, I believe that participant-observation still provides the deepest way in
which a more accurate cultural translation can occur.
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