Research Methods Used by Cultural Anthropologists - Assignment Example

Cultural Anthropology and Section # of Q1: Central Theme of Cultural Anthropology as Ethnographic field methods Cultural Anthropology is a branch of anthropology that deals with the study of cultures within a human society as a scientific model. It associates with the study of differences in cultures amongst the humans and encourages the anthropologists to “observe” the variations in cultures through field work, interviews, focus group discussions etc. Sir Edward Taylor gave one of the earliest definitions of anthropology as “A culture or a civilization is a complicated package which includes knowledge, ideas, beliefs, morals, values, style of living and any other capabilities acquired by a human being when he becomes a member of any society.” Cultural Anthropology is supported by ethnography (Ethno meaning people graphy meaning writing). Whatever data is collected by anthropologists through observations, interviews, questionnaires; it is captured by “writing” it. This “writing” is very similar to the field studies or case reports which we make these days. These “writings” are used to describe the human societies, their cultures, their style of living, customs, languages, food, marriages etc. Ethnography is the backbone of cultural anthropology. Without the written descriptions of civilizations and human societies, it would be impossible for the future generations to learn of a particular cultural/nation or society that existed in the past. There are various ways through which an anthropologist can collect data for ethnography. The most common and the easiest way to collect data is by observing the participants. Anthropologists often study different human societies by living with the participants and observing them. Another common method often used by anthropologists is by interviewing the people of a society. Interviews can vary between small peep talks with the citizens or can involve long detailed conversation covering various topics. The third method is by asking the participants to fill in the questionnaires. Anthropologists develop very simple, yet powerful questions which can reveal the ideas, notions, beliefs, perceptions and outlook about life of the people dwelling in a particular society. This is very important for an areas which is under long term study and is valid for measuring changing that have occurred in that area over time. Q2: Research methods that are used by Cultural Anthropologists Cultural Anthropologists mostly do rely on field based research for ethnographic writings. They continue to hover in the libraries, local churches and schools and even investigate the grave yards, trying to decode the ancient transcripts to dig historical information about the particular civilization which is under study. This is why cultural anthropologists are being criticized more as collectors than systematizers. Cultural anthropologists make use of immense ethnographic data by analyzing, collating, classifying and interpreting it. During their field research, the anthropologists are joined by the local areas researchers. At times, these research studies provide anthropologist a chance to do experiments with the changing cultures and modernization, as they try to find how an old culture evolved into a new one. As ethnographic methods of research are modernized, anthropologists started to focus more on the phenomenological approach of field work, paying less attention to aspects like culture, values and ethnics. They wanted to find more about the cultural elements in the society rather than just the doings of people. For example Clifford Geertz used this technique in this field works. He studied a group of people amongst whom winking was a communicative gesture. He first tried finding what winking exactly means, as it may associate with many meanings. Then he found that in which context the winking gesture was used and whether the meaning of this gesture remains the same through out the region. This way, anthropologists can use and determine which gestures (instead of verbal communication only) are used through out the regions and what do they mean. Clifford moved out of the typical way of doing ethnographic research and concentrated on “webs” rather than outlines of cultures. Today, the trend of analyzing and research done in anthropology is fast growing and has become the backbone of multi-sited ethnography. Anthropologists are showing less interest in comparing cultures instead, are generalizing the human behaviors and nature or discovering universal laws of cultural developments. They, than understand the particular culture in that culture’s own terms. Such ethnographers and their students promote the idea of culture relativism, the views that a person can understand another person’s beliefs and ideas only by being a part of his culture. Q3: The roles of cultural anthropologists within and beyond the academic community An anthropologist’s role of conducting a research and findings social changes and their causes are supposed to be of immense value and aid for the local and international governments and organizations. Since the ethnography is mostly concerned with the social change, it provides an appropriate solution to the social problems that people are confronting especially in economic and political sense. The local governments seek advises of Anthropologists to improve the social situations however advises are not whole heartedly accepted every time. Cultural anthropologists also play an important part in the corporate world. They have been working in this field since 1930 but in 1980, corporate study by anthropologists experienced a significant boost. This was because the businesses were growing very fast around the world and employers were becoming more aware of the business culture. Cultural anthropologist studied the people inhibiting a society and employers find it very useful to study the behaviors of the people in their corporations. They help the employers to find ways of encouraging creativity in their organizations and incorporate multi-cultural learning in their training programmes. Anthropologists also play an important role in helping the police to hunt for the criminals. Anthropologists become involved with the participants and try to determine the ante-mortem events which led to the victim’s death. Anthropologists conduct ethnographic interviews with the witness or survivors of an event to determine the facts that led to the crime. It also includes examination of the crime scene, things found at the crime spot, finger prints left behind and all the other evidences. This helps the anthropologists to determine when, where and how was the crime carried out. Cultural Anthropologists also work very closely with the archeologists and assist them in finding the historical events. They determine the culture affairs of the cases under study by analyzing the historical artifacts found by the archeologists. Q4: Cultural Anthropology applied to contemporary settings and concerns In today’s world, ethnography is the back bone of socio-cultural anthropology. However, many contemporary anthropologists have rejected the traditional ways of ethnography as according to them, it rendered the community under study to become deserted and detached from the world. Instead, anthropologists have attached themselves with the way people live in different cultures and their experiences. This is to understand all the activities of that particular community from a bigger, better and larger perspective which includes political, economic and cultural frameworks. The anthropologists in contemporary settings use the idea of multi-sited ethnography. This type of ethnography has it’s foundation of cultural ethnography but looks at the bigger picture of the “object” that is under study. It incorporates field studies from various backgrounds like media studies, science, technology and others. It follows the “object” of studies through global capitalism, groups’ of people that were involved in different places and times and the stories or rumors that were/are associated with it. For example Nancy Hughes researched about the illegal transfer of human organs around the world. She researched about the capital that was involved in the buying and selling of these organs as well as where did these organs came from, which led her to study another social crimes which was organs theft and child kidnapping. Thus, anthropologists are trying to produce concepts, and elements that are universal, theoretical and objective. But this seems a bit hard as not all the cultures are similar. Moreover, different schools of thoughts are present in every culture which makes it difficult for an anthropologist to come to a conclusion. The contemporary cultural anthropology has become dependent on library or laboratory research which is why they are criticized more as collectors than systematizers. Because anthropologists have begin to study cultures in a broader view, the main of anthropology which is to compare the cultures across the world has created more problems than solutions as the political scenario in today’s world is rejecting the possibility of this comparison. Q5: Cultural Anthropology helping the learner to be Global Citizens A cultural anthropologist studies human society, their behaviors, and ways of livings. They do this, by interviewing people in the society, working closely with the archeologists and conducting focus group discussions. An important aspect of an anthropologist’s job is ethnography. This means writing about the people of a society. Whatever information an anthropologist collects, he records that in writings, it may be social, biological, cultural, structural etc. Thus, an anthropologist gains a lot of knowledge about different civilizations of the world when he studies and records about different cultures and human societies; because anthropology is the holistic study of “humanity.” A global citizen is the one who understands his responsibilities and behaviors in the global context. Hence, when an anthropologist studies different cultures and people, he tries to link them up as the inhabitants of one world. He is aware of every culture’s social, economic and political implications in the local context as well as global context. It also affects the anthropologist emotionally because he learns how different cultures evolved over the period of time and how they have changed with the passage of time. This leads him to figure links between cultures, people and social norms, becoming a global citizen. Thus an anthropologist feels more responsible in contributing to the political and economic decisions, since he knows the psychology of the community people and understands how to help them in becoming more productive and effective. Anthropologists are global citizens since they can find a link between evolution of different cultures in the world and how each and every person is connected biologically, because of sharing the same ancestors etc. They promote human rights, harmony; best practices in societies and creativity amongst individuals, bringing the world closer. Anthropologists have their eyes on every trend that is changing in the world, therefore they always look at the change from the global perspective, as to what impact will other cultures bear due to a change in one culture. References Arnd Schneider and Christopher Wright (2006) Contemporary Art and Anthropology. Berg Publishers Claude Levi-strauss (2008) Structural Anthropology. Basic Books. Clifford Geertz (2007) The Interpretation Of Cultures. Basic Books Rita Astuti, Jonathan Parry, and Charles Stafford (2007) Questions of Anthropology. Berg Publishers Ruth Fulton Benedict (2006) An Anthropologist at Work: Writings of Ruth Benedict, by Margaret Mead. Greenwood Press Reprint Maruska Svasek (2007) The Anthropology Art and Cultural Production. Pluto Press. Read More