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Methods in Cultural Anthropology
(Miller Chapter 2)
The BIG Questions
How do cultural anthropologists conduct research on culture?
What does fieldwork involve?
What are some important issues in cultural anthropology research today?
Goals of Research in Cultural Anthropology
To study, analyze, and describe culture(s) in accordance with ethical
principles
How Do Cultural Anthropologists Do Research?
Approaches have changed over time
“Armchair anthropology” – 1870s
How early cultural anthropologists conducted research by
sitting and reading about other cultures
Learning and theorizing about cultures through secondhand
reports
Edward Tylor
“Verandah anthropology” – early 1900s
Living near, but not with the people to be studied
“The Field” – 1920s - today
“The Field” – any place where people and cultures are (p. 28)
The Field and Participant Observation
 While in the field, the cornerstone method anthropologists use is
participant observation.
 Participant observation is a research method for learning about culture
that involves living in (and/or immersing oneself in) a culture for an
extended period while gathering data (p. 28)
 “Father” of participant observation is Bronislaw Malinowski
Key Elements of Participant Observation
 Living with the people
 Eating
the same food
 Wearing similar clothes
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 Participating in their everyday life
 May be conducted in one or more locations
 If
fieldwork is conducted in more than one location it is termed
“multisited research” (p. 29)
 Learning and speaking the local language
 Not
using an interpreter whenever possible
Steps Involved in Cultural Anthropology Fieldwork
 Before going into the field…
 Choose a place to do research
 Choose a research topic
 Prepare for the fieldwork
 While in the field…
 Gain rapport
 Collect data
 When come back from the field…
 Data analysis
 Present the data / write up results
Where to do research?
Cultural anthropologists today go to “the field”
► “The field” is anywhere people are
“The field” has changed since the early days of
cultural anthropology in terms of where it is
From the faraway, exotic and small-scale…
For example, Samoa
To urban and globalizing sites such as Tangier,
Morocco
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To the field at home: for example, Tangier, Virginia
Even to Main Street, USA…
…and Corporate USA
What to Study?
Topics have changed since the early days of cultural anthropology
From “holistic” studies of small groups…
 such as indigenous peoples of the Andaman Islands, India,
…to focused topical studies such as gender, health, or
conflict in larger societies
Anthropologists today may study…
Gender: women’s lives in a South Indian urban neighborhood
Or how globalization affects informal markets in the Old City of Istanbul, Turkey
Or poverty and health in Johannesburg, South Africa
Or tourism’s environmental and social effects in the Andaman Islands
What Should You Think About When Choosing a
Research Project?
When Choosing a Research Project, think about…
 Making sure it is a feasible project
Will you be able to find a place to stay?
 Will you be able to get the proper permission
 Gaps in literature / previous research
 where are the women?
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 Current events
HIV/AIDS
 Migration / refugees
 Conflicts
 Material items
 Sugar, tomatoes, cocoa, cocaine
 Luck
 Natural disaster
 Re-study
 Trobriand Islanders

Preparing to go into the field
 Extensive reading about the background literature on the area / watching
videos on the area, etc.
 Learn the language
 Secure funding for the project / writing grant proposals
 Get a passport / visa
 Get various immunizations
 First aid training
 Preliminary trip
 Specialized equipment and supplies
 Personal supplies
 Specialized clothing and equipment, tents, etc.
 Research supplies
 Cameras, laptops, tape/video recorders
 Permission to conduct research must be obtained from many levels
 From the national government
 From the local people
 From various organizations you work with
 From the university
 Institutional Review Board (IRB)
 Monitor all research related to living humans to make sure it
conforms to ethical principles
 Informed consent – an aspect of research ethics requiring that the
researcher inform the research participants of the intent, scope, and
possible effects of the study and seek their agreement to be in the
study (p. 32)
Beginning Fieldwork
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 Fieldwork is often a difficult process, especially in the beginning
Dealing with physical and psychological risks, and sometimes even
violence and warfare
 Car/truck accidents getting to the field site
 Unfamiliar climate
 Unfamiliar terrain
 Sometimes fatal falls
 Diseases
 Malaria
 Crime
 Philippe Bourgois – East Harlem, New York – “In Search of
Respect” – crack, gangs, underground economic activities
 Dealing with culture shock
 Culture shock is persistent feelings of uneasiness, loneliness, and
anxiety that often occur when a person has shifted from one culture
to a different one (p. 35)
 Frustration with unfamiliar language, food, and customs – is a
stressful adjustment
 Primary goal in the early stages is to gain rapport
 Rapport is a trusting relationship between the researcher and the
study population (p. 33)
 May want to first gain the trust of key leaders or decision makers in
the community and learn culturally appropriate gift giving and
exchange rules
 People may be suspicious of outsiders and may have no idea what
an anthropologist is and what he/she is doing there

Culture Shock discussion
 Think of an occasion in which you experienced culture shock,
even if as the result of a brief cross-cultural encounter.
 How did you feel?
 How did you cope?
 What did you learn from the experience?
Beginning Fieldwork
 The various microcultures (e.g. class, ethnicity, gender, age) we
are a part of influence rapport
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 Class, ethnic, gender, and age differences may cause some tension or
provide opportunities
Fieldwork Approaches
 The goal of fieldwork is to collect data, or information, about the
research topic.
 Research approaches can be deductive or inductive.
Deductive Research
 Deductive research starts from a question or hypothesis and then
involves collecting data related to that question
 Data collected is more likely to be…
 quantitative (numerical)
 population size, number of houses, hours worked per day, number of children,
quantities of various materials
 etic (fits into categories meaningful to the cultural outsider/anthropologist)
Inductive Research
 Inductive research involves gathering data without a hypothesis
 Data collected is more likely to be…
 qualitative (non-numerical)
 emic (fits into categories meaningful to the cultural insider/local population)
 Most anthropologists operate somewhere between these two
extremes, combining deductive and inductive approaches and
quantitative and qualitative data.
Fieldwork Techniques
 Participant observation
 Talking with people
 Interview
 Questionnaire
 Life histories
 Time allocation studies
 Analyzing textual material
 Maps and charts
 Triangulation
Participant observation
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 Involves both…
 Participation
 Participating in the people’s daily lives
 Careful Observation
 Rationale for it is that the more time a researcher spends among the
people,…
 the more likely it is that the people will live their “normal” lives
 the less likely it is that people will conform their behavior to the
perceived expectations of the researcher
Talking with people
 Informal, casual, unplanned conversations
 Interview – a technique for gathering verbal data through questions or
guided conversation (p. 37)
 More purposeful than a casual conversation
 Can be structured (close-ended questions) or unstructured (openended questions)
 Can involve only two people (the interviewer and interviewee) or
multiple people (a focus group or group interview)
 Questionnaire – a formal research instrument containing a pre-set
series of questions that the anthropologist asks in a face-to-face
setting, by mail, or through email/online (p. 37)
 Can be structured (close-ended questions) or unstructured (openended questions)
 Questions must make cultural sense
Life histories
 A life history is a qualitative, in-depth description of an individual’s life
as narrated to the researcher (p. 38)
 Provides important information about the cultural construction of an
individual’s life experiences
 Recording and comparing life histories of individuals from various
microcultures can reveal both individual experiences and shared
patterns
 “Nisa: The Life and Times of a !Kung Woman”
 Most widely read life history in anthropology
Time allocation studies
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 A time allocation study is a quantitative method that collects data on
how people spend their time each day on particular activities (p. 38)
Analyzing textual material
 May include written or oral stories, myths, songs, plays, sayings,
speeches, jokes, and transcripts of people’s everyday conversations
 Also includes written archival and historical material
Maps and Charts
 Creating kinship charts of families
 Drawing maps of villages or offices or whatever physical space you’re
studying
 Maps of culturally specific places
 Chain of command charts
 Charts of who sits where at meetings
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And much more!
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Triangulation
 Triangulation is a technique that involves seeking information on a
particular topic from more than one angle or perspective (p. 39)
 Combining multiple research methods
 Taking with people and participant observation
 Participant observation and life histories
 Various qualitative and quantitative methods
 Collaborating with colleagues from other disciplines in order to gain
multiple perspectives
Recording Culture
 Refers to how an anthropologist keeps track of all the
information collected in the field and how it is recorded for future
analysis
 Anthropologists take many field notes!
 Taking notes is still the trademark method of recording data for a
cultural anthropologist
 May include daily logs, personal journals, descriptions of events,
and notes about these notes
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 Tape recorders, photography, and videos are also helpful in
capturing data
 Benefit
 Captures much more detail than notes can
 Drawbacks
 People may be suspicious of the technology itself and worry about what you
may do with the tape
 Ethical issue of protecting the identity of people whose voices are preserved on
tape
Coming Back From the Field
 Data Analysis
 Anthropologists come back from the field with vast amounts of data!
 Must analyze the data to put it into a meaningful form
 Systematically studying and processing data
 Wide variety of ways to analyze data collected
 Analytical methods depend on the kind of data
 Qualitative
 Quantitative
 Qualitative data analysis
 Search for themes or patterns in the data
 No hard and fast guidelines for how to undertake qualitative analysis –
individuals often develop their own systems that work for them
 Can be done by hand or with the assistance of qualitative analysis
software programs
 Quantitative data analysis
 Often consists of a statistical analysis of the data
 Mean, median, mode, correlations
 Can be done by hand (if a relatively small sample) or with the help of
statistical software programs
 Write an ethnography
 Often focuses on a particular cultural aspect or issue, but considers
the culture as a whole for the sake of context
 Present research at meetings
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Ethics
Anthropology was one of the first disciplines to devise and adopt a code
of ethics in 1971
Influenced by…
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Project Camelot in the 1950s
 Anthropologists involved in covertly collecting information on
South American political events for the U.S. government
 Vietnam War – 1960s and 1970s
 Some anthropologists gave information to the U.S. government
about people’s political affiliations – led to military actions and
some deaths
Ethics apply…
 Before going to the field (research design)
 In the field (data collection methods)
 After leaving the field (presenting findings, sharing results,
responsibility)
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 American Anthropological Association (AAA) code of ethics
 States that an anthropologist’s primary responsibility is to ensure
the safety of the people participating in the research
 Cultural anthropology does not condone convert or undercover
research
 All anthropologists should inform potential research participants
about the purposes and scope of the study
 The reason for studying the people must be made clear to them
 Benefits of the research must be shared with the people.
Collaborative Research
 Collaborative research – an approach to learning about culture that
involves the anthropologist working with members of the study population
as partners and teammates rather than researcher and “subject” (p. 43)
 Research with the people, by the people, for the people
 Team approach is better for everyone
 Members of the study population work as partners with the
anthropologist in
Data collection
Data analysis
Presentation of findings
Sharing credit for results
The BIG Questions Revisited
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 How do cultural anthropologists conduct research on culture?
 What does fieldwork involve?
 What are some important issues in cultural anthropology
research today?