文化人类学讲义田野调查方法

• Used for obtaining information on what people think or feel (attitudinal data) as well as on what they do (behavioral data)
Interviewing /Structured & Unstructured
Disadvantages of ParticipantObservation
• Small sample sizes • Data is hard to code or categorize • Difficulties in recording observations • Obtrusiveness
• No two fieldwork situations are the same but all fieldworkers have a number of concerns, problems and issues in common
Preparing for Fieldwork
• Obtaining funding
Fieldwork
• Shift from fieldwork on smallscale, non-Western cultures to research in sites closer to home, urban neighborhoods, retirement homes, industrial plants, hospitals, elementary schools, prisons, administrative bureaucracies to recreational vehicle owners
Applied Field Methods
• More collaborative and interdisciplinary • More inclusive of local people in all stages of research • Faced with real-time limitations
Preparing for Fieldwork
• Health Precautions
Preparing for Fieldwork
• Clearance
Preparing for Fieldwork
• Proficiency in the local language
Preparing for Fieldwork
Cultural anthropologists use other techniques for collecting cultural data a various stages of the field study: • Census Taking • Mapping • Document Analysis • Collecting Genealogies • Photography
• Because survey researchers are using much larger sample sizes, they rely much more heavily upon statistical analysis than do ethnographers
Fieldwork-difficulties
• As a research strategy, fieldwork is experiential this involves: *living with the people they study *learning the language of those they study *asking questions *surveying environments/material possessions *spending long periods observing everyday behaviors and interactions in a natural setting
Participant-Observation/Interviewing
• In addition to using participant-observation, cultural anthropologists in the field rely heavily on ethnographic interviewing
Techniques of Applied Field Research
• Rapid Ethnographic Assessment
• Surveys • Focus Groups
Trends in Ethnographic Fieldwork
• Reflexive Methodsassociated with postmodernism, focuses more on the interaction between the ethnographer and the informant than on scientific objectivity
Cultural Anthropology
Methods In Cultural Anthropol Cultural anthropologists conduct research in libraries and museums but they rely most heavily on experiential fieldwork
• Survey researchers who work almost exclusively in literate societies, have the luxury of mailing questionnaires to the intended respondents
Fieldwork & Survey Methods
Unstructured Interviews-involve a minimum of control; interviewer asks open-ended questions on a general topic and allows interviewees to respond at their own pace using their own words
Data-Gathering Techniques: Participant Observation
• Of the techniques used by anthropologists, participantobservation is used more extensively than any other
Because the participant-observer is interested in studying people at the grassroots level, it is always advisable to work one’s way down the political hierarchy 1.Research clearance 2.Select one role and use it consistently 3.Proceed slowly 4.Respectfully emphasize that you are a student
Fieldwork & Survey Methods
• Anthropologists have recently blended traditional ethnographic methods with survey methods • Differences between the two: Ethnographies take a holistic view by studying complete, functioning societies, while survey research focuses on a representative sampling of a larger population
Advantages of Participant-Observation
• People tend to appreciate the attempt to live according to the rules of their culture • Enables the fieldworker to distinguish between normative and real behavior (what people should do and what they actually do)
• Personal details
Stages of Field Research
1. Selecting a research problem 2. Formulating a research design 3. Collecting the data 4. Analyzing the data 5. Interpreting the data
fieldwork
fieldwork
• Has fieldwork always been a central part of the discipline?
Fieldwork-Prior to the 1960s
• “his” or “her” people • No explanation of field methods or of the fieldwork experience ?how long in the field ?how many interviewed/observed ?how were samples collected ?what data collection techniques were used ?problems encountered ?how was data analyzed
Ethics of Cultural Anthropology
• Project Camelot-aborted U.S. Army research project designed to study the cause of civil unrest and violence in developing countries; created a controversy among anthropologists as to whether the U.S. government was using them as spies
*becoming involved in the culture under study while making systematic observations of what people actually do.
Guidelines for Participant-Observation Fieldwork
Structured Interviews-large numbers of respondents are asked a set of specific questions in same sequence and preferably the same set of conditions
Other Data-Gathering Techniques
Fieldwork & Survey Methods
• Ethnographies use first-hand experiential methods while survey researchers have indirect contact with their subjects
Fieldwork & Survey Methods