The Anthropologies Ways to Ethnographies the State - Essay Example

Anthropology Introduction According to scholars’ definitions, anthropology is a branch of study that focuses on the past, present and the future of the human race, which draws its basis on knowledge from natural sciences, humanity, biological, and social sciences. Ideally, anthropology is different from other studies such as ethnology because of its focus on the comparisons between cultures in order to illustrate cultural relativism used to criticize those critic cultural findings. This concept has gained popularity in the USA through the arguments developed by Boas that related to feminism, sexual liberation, and equality in terms of gender. In essence, the concept gained momentum in the nineteenth century through Mead Margaret’s advocacy for the liberation of the female gender. Britain also uses this concept but theirs is more on social anthropology but in the USA, the concept has a classification of four. The four are cultural, social, physical and anthropology in linguistics. Presently, anthropology maintains cemented relations with the state as it forms a basis for scholarly study after anthropologists moved the study of ancient political systems. With this, this essay will delve into the ways that anthropologists have used to ethnographize state and the ways that these attempts have influenced society to understand the process of state and state itself. Background information on anthropology and the state formation In the past, most of the societies were stateless societies, but anthropology shifted its focus from the reasons surrounding the formation of states to the ways in which they operated. Ideally, ethnography is a significant part of anthropology research in which it seeks to understand the ways in which people in societies live their lives (Banard & Spencer viii). It is a contrary data-gathering tool in which researchers visit the population that they intend to study physically that make observations in an indirect way. By the twentieth century, anthropologists adopted the crafting of ethnographies as way presenting social and cultural anthropology. The data gathering process for these anthropologists was a long one as they had to make their researches to entail the spending of time at churches, libraries, and ancient sites in order to establish how states came into being. The basic illustration is that these researchers rely on when conducting their study is the art and myths that might be in existence to a particular society. Over time, social and cultural anthropologists focused on relatively similar studies as mostly of their findings were relational. According to Malinowski, the only way that an ethnographer or an anthropologist would give proper accounts for state systems was by experiencing the lives of their informants first hand as this was a direct insight to their world (Stoller 134). In many instances, people or researchers would view the lifestyles of other people as complex because they did not understand what it really meant to live their way hence prodding the establishment of this form of anthropology. In prior years, this research began as a study of savages and the ways in which they related to one another in societies tat did not have any sets of laws, but it later expanded to include the study of western cultures. The argument that Malinowski presented through his work was that development of a social culture was beyond the intellectual capacity of people as the individual thinking contributed to the establishment of a complex societal culture. One of the reasons that Malinowski chose to spotlight his research on ethnography was because of his Polish ethnicity, which made him to be a Austria-Hungary subject and established ties with Britain. The implication of this was different anthropologists chose to venture into different times of history in order for them to develop comprehensive findings for their research (Stoller 131). Anthropology and the western states In most instances, the researchers or anthropologists that made journeys to different regions in order to study the natives of these non-literate regions or vice versa mostly had double ethnic origins. This implies that that they opted to focus on these researches because it somehow communicated of their desire to establish their ancestral roots though not in their lands. Boas was one of the exemplary anthropologists to have ever lived and some of his accomplished students in anthropology included Mead Margaret, and Samir Edward. In prior researches, anthropologists had intimated that culture and social systems developed as a result of technological evolution stages, which Boas negated (Robben and Sluka 53). The resultant findings were that the establishment of culture was because of the interactions and cultural exchange of ideas. This meant that culture was not an evolution process as other researchers had established with the European culture being at the top of the evolution hierarchy. One of the key concepts to have emerged from anthropology was that people living in a particular society tend to view the world from their own cultural norms. This prodded the ways in which people from different ethnic origins interacted with people from other cultural divides because of their difference in language and practices. Therefore, the basic way in which persons from the west could understand the lives of people that did not share similar ethnic identities meant that they had to merge the study of cultural artifacts, ethnology, and linguistics. In essence, many of the anthropologists that believed in participant research viewed this as the viable way of collecting data rather than relying on the study of societies (Haviland 7). Traditional societies were more steady and homogenous as compared to the western cultures tat had individualism and dynamism influences. Therefore, anthropologists sought to ascertain the reasons why individuals reacted in a particular way to their social environment and the factors that influenced their primitive way of life. In turn, the social environment that an individual lives has a direct correlation to the personal activities in which studiers of the modern anthropology concept established civilized and non literate societies were not that different. Classical ways of conducting ethnographic anthropology Ideally, the nineteenth century anthropologists and historians used the philology technique to try and reconstruct the histories of both the primitive and literate states (Sharma N & Sharma K 201). In essence, philology is a study that combines history, linguistics, and literature critics hence making it a comprehensive study of literary texts to authenticate them (Momma 26). In this mode of research, anthropologists had to collect data through the combining of myths, cuisine, and folk tales of a local community in order to reconstruct the history of a non-literate society. This was because anthropologists of the nineteenth century believed that the perceived non-literate societies did not have any literature that could illustrate their cultural history. Therefore, their work was to collect any pieces that had informative aspects that could have aided in explaining a nature and way of living for a primitive society. However, ethnology as part of anthropology research presented a contrary approach to this study as researchers viewed their subjects as partners that played a crucial role in helping themselves and others to understand their own culture (Robben & Sluka 54). As much as other anthropologists viewed this concept as a remarkable area of study, others viewed the thinking of difference in states because of their ethnicity as a way of exercising racism. In this regard, some anthropologists such as Boas Franz negated the division of states into literate and non-literate clusters, which influenced inequality. This also presented the western culture supremacy over other cultures making other cultures to be inferior and irrelevant. On the contrary, the study of anthropology through the ethnology ideology created an avenue for equal treatment as researchers had to experience the different cultures first hand in order for their research to be applicable. In the end, these studies influenced the ideology that all races were equal meaning that these scientists were the first to accept racism does not have a biological basis. Amazingly, most of the researchers that spotlighted on ethnology agreed that it was critical to establish the similarities between cultures before drawing the differences that they might have between them. 1. The natural learning process of culture One of the ways ethnographers seek to understand different states is by learning the rules that govern these societies rather relying on the data gathered through interviews with the informants (Ferraro & Andreatta 106). Therefore, observing about different cultures helps anthropologists in understanding the natural cultural processes of the perceived non-literate societies. In comparison, this model is relatively similar to the ways in which children begin to learn concepts that are new to them and adopt principles as they see them. A child grows to a point that they begin to ask questions in order for them to understand their society and surrounding more and might engage in activities for experimentation purposes. In the same manner, ethnographers can opt to learn the rules and ways of living for a particular society by observing and practicing the principles that they live by (Whitehead 9). Therefore, this technique allows for the physical engagement of culture rather than relying on gathered information in order to conduct conclusive research. This technique also influences the interpretation of the various data collected that helps in giving a researcher satisfaction in their work as this influences them to be efficient in their learning just as toddlers would be. In essence, children may not have an existing framework that they rely on hence making their understanding to depend on their surroundings as their socio-cultural stimuli. Anthropologists that use the child-learning model are also green in the same as their senses tend to have a tuning to environmental stimulation because they are without frameworks that might help them understand the cultural attributes of their informants. 2. Through descriptive observations As described above, two major ways of gathering data exist that attempt to understand the cultural state of a society that can either be participatory or non-participatory observations (Angrosino 54). Essentially, observation requires the use of sight when conducting research without having to engage in the physical aspects surrounding the study (Whitehead 11). In many instances, the studies that these ethnographers conduct tend to be answers that help in understanding a particular state or society through the establishments of questions to answers that are already in existence. Principally, this tends to be an open-end approach as the main objective of this data gathering process is to collect as much information as a researcher possibly can during their descriptive observations. As a result, the ethnographic team of researchers gains the indigenous sense of the socio-cultural society that they are studying. The principle requirement in making descriptive observation is that it also engages the study of the behavioral attributes that may influence a particular society to behave in a particular way (Haviland 8). In essence, these behaviors may be either acquisitional or those that have basis on distribution or even preparation behavior (Whitehead 12). In this case, an ethnographer has to be alert with all the other senses in order for them to observe as much as possible from their informants in order for their data to be accurate. 3. Initial ethnographic tours In this technique of gathering data for anthropology, an ethnographer has to make a community tour of the area that one intends to study before introducing him or herself to the community that they would want to study (Clair 98). In most cases, this tour does not require an actual engagement with the members of a particular society that the study aims and is the familiarization tour in which the anthropology team makes observations on the state settings. In many cases, this process requires that researchers work as a team in which each member of the research team focuses on the aspects that one can hear while another might focus on the sounds among a list of other research functions. Rather than engaging the whole population intended for study, the anthropology team may make use of an acknowledged community expert whose knowledge about this community is valid because of their long-term research on their ways of living. In essence, ethnographic tours are applicable in areas that are expansive and that may require immense logistics in conducting the research in full as reaching the entire region occupied by the study population would be impossible. In small communities, the tour may be a walking one while in expansive areas a vehicle would be a necessity if the research is to be successful in the data collection aspect. However, this may not be a comprehensive of gathering anthropology data meaning that the achievement of accuracy in the collected information would have to attract descriptive observations at some point. The implication of this is that these ways of understanding states through ethnology have direct correlation because they appear to have interconnection aspects in which they may also cross to involve the study of western societies. Conclusion In developed societies, an ethnographer may make their study at social settings where they are likely to have high numbers of informant that may contribute the success of the study and help in understanding the ways of living of a particular state. In many instances, the ethnographic study within a social setting draws influence from the socio-cultural relations that people within a society may form in their co-existence. However, these processes of data gathering might not be as smooth because there may be the occurrence of communication breakdowns that might influence the gathering of inaccurate data for the research (Clair 99). By making observations, a researcher raises his or her other senses in order for them to understand the cultural difference that makes the people that they are studying to be unique and to behave in a particular way. In the end, an ethnographer’s study of anthropology helps in influencing racial equality rather than prejudice because it illustrates that are cultures are not different but have relatively similar principles lying within them. Therefore, the ways that ethnographers have focused to study anthropology has helped in most people in society to understand the state and state processes because they have provided adequate data that supports cultural relativism (Wolcott 147). Works cited Angrosino, Michael V. Doing Ethnographic and Observational Research. London: Sage Publications, 2008. Internet resource. Banard, Alan J and Spencer, Jonathan. The Routledge Encyclopedia of Social and Cultural Anthropology. London: Taylor & Francis, 2010. Print. Clair, Robin P. Expressions of Ethnography: Novel Approaches to Qualitative Methods. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press, 2003. Print. Ferraro, Gary P, and Susan Andreatta. Cultural Anthropology: An Applied Perspective. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, 2011. Print. Haviland, William A. Cultural Anthropology: The Human Challenge. Belmont, CA: /Wadsworth/Cengage Learning, 2014. Print. Momma, Haruko. From Philology to English Studies: Language and Culture in the Nineteenth Century. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2013. Print. Robben, Antonius C. G. M, and Sluka Jeffrey A. Ethnographic Fieldwork: An Anthropological Reader. Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell, 2012. Print. Stoller, Paul. The Taste of Ethnographic Things: The Senses in Anthropology. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2011. Print. Whitehead, Tony L. Basic Classical Ethnographic Research Methods. University of Maryland, 17 July 2005. Web. 25 Nov 2013. Wolcott, Harry F. Ethnography: A Way of Seeing. Lanham: AltaMira Press, 2008. Internet resource. Read More