Similar Aspects of the Ethnographic Fieldworks of Malinowski, Radcliffe-Brown, and Levi- Strauss - Research Paper Example

? Compare (Similar aspects) the ethnographic fieldwork of Malinowski, Radcliffe-Brown and Levi- Strauss. What impact did they have? Institution Introduction This is an ethnographic fieldwork assessment that discusses Malinowski, Radcliffe-Brown and Levi- Strauss approaches. The expression ethnography has come to be associated with almost any qualitative study project where the objective is to offer a detailed, in-depth depiction of daily life and practice. Ethnographers generate understandings of customs through illustration of what people call an emic viewpoint (Fetterman 12), or what could be described as the internal's point of perception. The emphasis in this demonstration is thus on permitting critical meanings and categories to emerge from the ethnographic experience rather than forcing these from current models.  An etic viewpoint, by contrast, means to a more remote, analytical based to experience. This ethnographic essay seeks to evaluate and analyze the work of Malinowski in Trobriand Islands, Radcliffe- Brown’s work in the Andaman Islands and Levi-Strauss’s work in Brazil. Comparison Malinowski anthropology work or study in Trobriand Islands started when he went on his field work. The war broke out in Europe and he was caught in a dilemma of which side he belonged to. So took the opportunity to adapt and learn foreign languages that assisted him to survive the time’s critical circumstances (Atkinson 61). The anthropology work of Malinowski about knew the life style in Trobriand Islands and this is illustrated in the subsequent expression. Primitive or pre-market society, executed duties in different ways to market economies. In market trade matters, products are exchanged in the market location and the objective of the deal is to come out with proceeds (Atkinson 61). Pre-market financial matters are very diverse. They work, not as is frequently preempted, by barter, by what is recognized as ‘gift swap’, and since the dealings of gift exchange depends at the heart of comprehending all early communities, it is essential to first journey the Western Pacific, to the Trobriand Islands where Bronislaw travelled to assess and understand work of the anthropology as first worked out regarding gift exchange. A.R. Radcliffe-Brown is renowned as the founder of structural-functionalism and as a key co-founder of British communal anthropology, along with Bronislaw Malinowski. Radcliffe-Brown initially came to lime light through his assessment of kinship and social association among The Andaman Islanders (1922) and, afterward, amongst the aborigines of Australia, documented in such anthropologies as SOAT (Social Organization of Australian Tribes) (1931). Structural-functionalism perceptions society as an entity based of functionally mutually dependent institutions (Moore 136). Structural-functional psychoanalysis, although later reassessed as reductionist, deeply impacted the development of communal anthropology and carry on to influence the sub disciplines of economic and political anthropology. Radcliffe has been defined as the classic to Bronislaw Malinowski's idealistic. Radcliffe-Brown incorporated French sociology to British anthropology, developing a rigorous series of concepts to categorize ethnography. Greatly impacted by the effort of Emile Durkheim (Moore 136), the anthropologist saw organizations as the key to sustaining the global social arrangement of a society, equivalent to the parts of a body, and his researches of social purpose examine how traditions aid in maintaining the overall steadiness of a society. Claude Levi-Strauss was the renowned influential anthropologist of his age group, and one of the foremost academia in post-war France. His anthropology writings inspired a main intellectual association, and at least two of his articles have immensely become classics of French prose. He was mainly responsible for the growth of social anthropology in France and by extension the rest of the world (Erickson 100). Levi-Strauss's associates, the Strauss and the Levi relatives, accorded to the long-developed Jewish society in Strasbourg. Strauss Isaac, his great-grandfather, a violin player, migrated to Paris and developed as a director of the court ballet orchestra at the closing stages of Louis-Philippe's time in power. Levi-Strauss's father was a representation painter, never incredibly successful. While Levi-Strauss (1958) asserted that communal structure and the social associations that are its components are theoretical ideologies used to model communal life, Radcliffe-Brown merely half-consented (Erickson 100). Brown reasoned (1957) that social association are genuine, and even directly visible; but that social construction is a theoretical structure posited by the experts on the foundation of his or her scrutiny of social relations. The similarity evident here is that both acknowledge about the existence of social relations and in their respective anthropology studies they embraced the con concept. Radcliffe-Brown shared with Levi-Strauss the concept that a major objective of social anthropology was to recognize social structures and recognized associations between them, and that discrete mathematics or qualitative would be an essential tool to execute this (Erickson 100). In that intelligence Radcliffe-Brown may be regarded one of the founders of social network analysis. In addition to recognizing abstract associations between social constructs, Radcliffe-Brown reasoned for the significance of the idea of a total communal structure, which is the computation total of communal relations in a provided social unit of study during a given age. The recognition of functions of communal practices was meant to be comparative to this total social composition (Lee 8). Radcliffe-Brown did an all-embracing fieldwork in Australia within the Andaman Islands, and some places. On the foundation of this study, he contributed lengthily to the anthropological concepts on relationship, and discounted Levi-Strauss's Alliance theory (Moore 136). He also fashioned structural scrutinizes of myths, comprising on the foundation of the idea of binary distinctions, an initiative later recited by Levi-Strauss. Radcliffe-Brown was frequently criticized for not being able to consider the consequence of historical transformations in the societies he researched, in particular transformations brought about by capitalism, but he is at the moment regarded, together with Bronislaw Malinowski, as the founder of contemporary social anthropology (Lee 8). Impacts of Malinowski, Radcliffe-Brown and Levi- Strauss approaches The gift exchange scheme outlined with such clearness in the Trobiands is almost certainly in quintessence the standard in most of the globe The economic organization that people enjoy in the West and the rest of the world is in fact the exclusion rather than the regulation and individuals must anticipate to get it to some level or other being common in all countries before the dawn of money and the market financial system. What is still more imperative to remember is that large concepts of gift exchange and status giving remain rampant even in marketplace economies (Erickson 100). When contemporary economists condemn corruption they should reflect first that they are most likely condemning a practice that is the standard in most financial systems and when exhibit takes place in a contemporary economy when a father offers a wedding for his descendant with a lushness to impress all the visitors or buys an automobile whose performance is faraway in excess of practical necessities, people should memorize that this is just the display of status and prestige is impressive that in the long term is well worth obtaining (Lee 8). There is lastly a more objective evaluation to be made. Gift swap is not simply inefficient both as a manners of distributing presents that are required and as a manner of giving prestige but it is also inquisitively unsatisfying. Whereas in a promotion transaction both segments can and frequently do get away with the concept they have if not a good deal at least worth for money. In gift swap both sides frequently come away disgruntled that they have not actually attained the gift they require. Ultimately this creates such societies less steady, less welcoming, and more aggressive than the market financial issues. The market eventually is the great forerunner, not only of wealth but also of peace (Humphrey 121). Conclusion In conclusion, the ethnographic fieldwork done by Malinowski, Radcliffe-Brown and Levi- Strauss are similar in approach since all relate to social relations. Despite different background the works discusses same concepts through different approaches. Works cited Atkinson, Paul. Handbook of Ethnography. London [u.a.: Sage, 2002. Print. Erickson, Paul A, Liam D. Murphy, and Paul A. Erickson. Readings for a History of Anthropological Theory. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2013. Print. Fetterman, David M. Ethnography: Step-by-step. Los Angeles: SAGE, 2010. Print. Humphrey, Caroline, and Stephen Hugh-Jones. Barter, Exchange, and Value: An Anthropological Approach. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1992. Print. Lee, Richard B, and Richard Daly. The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Hunters and Gatherers. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999. Print. Moore, Jerry D. Visions of Culture: An Introduction to Anthropological Theories and Theorists. Lanham, Md: AltaMira Press, 2012. Print. Read More