Tingunee Of The Lower Quebin River Valley - Essay Example

They may be what we would consider a primitive tribe or they may be an advanced culture. There is no way of knowing because no one has studied them in the past, which They may find tubers and plants that are not indigenous to other areas of the world. They may have animals or fish that they eat, or they may be vegetarian, all of which would be based on their environment. They may make use of their environment for building materials and they may or may not have access to healthcare. They may be what we would consider a primitive tribe or they may be an advanced culture.

There is no way of knowing because no one has studied them in the past, which means that this would be a very important study. Haviland, Harald, and Prins (2008) suggest that each culture has their own rules and standards that are not obvious to the observer. This means that as part of the study, anthropologists would need to understand these rules and standards. The first step in studying these people would be to do preliminary research. Because there are no written materials on this culture, it would be important to see whether there are cultures around it that have some oral knowledge about them.

There would need to be an understanding of how to gain access to them in their environment. Since they have never been visited by other people they may be suspicious of anyone who they do not know. The anthropologists would have to gain the trust of the people by perhaps bringing them something that they could value. Most small cultures will have some type of understanding about the world around them, but it will be tied to their religion or their superstitions. Consideration should be given to this issue because new cultures are often frightened by those things they do not understand.

We do not know what race the Tingunee are and therefore we would want to understand what they looked like so that we could bring into the area people who may look like them so they would not be as frightened by strangers. Ferraro (2008) suggests that when studying cultures it is important to keep an open mind and understand the culture from their perspective rather than from our own. This would make sense in studying the Tingunee because they are a new culture that we have no frame of reference towards.

In studying them we would want to observe them in a subjective manner instead of through our own culture. Language may be a barrier and an interpreter may need to be found. Once trust had been established, the anthropologists would need to use participant observation to gain a deeper entrance into the culture. This would allow the researchers an understanding of what the culture does on a daily basis and how the Tingunee interact with each other and with strangers. Once everyone was comfortable (the researchers and the Tingunee) there may be a few villagers who would help the researchers understand more about the culture.

The goal of the study would be to document everything we could about this new culture. We would want to know their approximate age, what they ate, how they slept, where they lived and how they went about their day. We would want to know about their religion if they had one, how they governed themselves and what seemed to be most important for them. The initial contact with this culture would be crucial in defining whether we could continue to study them. The information that would be taken would be a combination of qualitative and quantitative information.

The demographics would be important as well as the density of the population, the size and structure of their living space, whether they do farming and have crops that they grow for food, how they interact with their environment, and what they use for fuel to cook their food. On a qualitative basis, it would be important to know how the group interacts socially, and understand "what, why, and how they