ANT207H1 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Thick Description, Evolutionism
Professor Tanya Li Sept. 22, 2016
ANT207 LECTURE 2
ANTHROPOLOGICAL FIELDWORK
***What is it?
***Why is it the key method used in socio-cultural anthropology?
Ex. student walks out of lecture
- What happened?
- Thin vs. thick description
- Context
- Communication
- Intent
- Multiple frames of interpretation
UNDERSTANDING HUMAN ACTION
• Observation?
- Not enough
- It only using eyes, limited to what you can see
- Need to know backgrounds
• Measurement?
• Lab?
- You can cut out all background noise, get specific information
- Abnormal environment
• Look inside your head?
• What can you actually tell form that?
• Ask a key informant?
• Conduct a survey?
- Everything that makes knowledge scientific through surveys does not apply to the
cultural domain
FIELDWORK AS SCIENCE
• Open-ended curiosity
• Inductive method → start with what you see and probe it
• Compare what people say, what they do (everything is data)
• Compare across contexts and perspectives
• Embrace surprises
• Cross-checking = understanding is provisional (but not just “my opinion”)
REFLIEXIVITY
• Positioning (how do people see you physically, how are you perceived, etc.)
• Selection, framing
• Ethics
• “make the familiar strange”
• Suspend judgement
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