ANTH1001 Lecture Notes - Lecture 8: Franz Boas, Shared Experience, Participant Observation
24 May 2018
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Week 8: FIELDWORK: PARTICIPANT OBSERVATION (1):
• Bronislaw Malinowski (1884-1942) Trobriand Island - Papua New Guinea:
o off the erandah reject a reliance on interies
o and into the illage participation
o Local language as the basis of research
• Franz Boas (1858 – 1942) Kwakiutl - West Coast Canada
o Understanding hat is in its local context
o Culture as a distinctive history
o Local language as the basis of research
• Participant observation
o Natural contexts of social interaction
o Context controlled by the people being studied
o Shared experience from different points of view
o Learning language
o Questioning on the basis of shared experience
o Shared projects
• Contrasts with other Methods:
o Experiment
• Replicability
• Controls
• Measurement
• Randomisation
o Ethology:
• Observation in natural context
• Meaning is not the issue
o Interviews:
• Assumption of shared context of meaning between interviewer and interviewee
o Surveys:
• Quantification
• Model generating questions prior to research
• Long term Fieldwork:
o Experiencing a full calendar year
o Developing relationships
o Repetition of experience
o Going back over a lifetime
• Different kinds of fieldwork contexts:
o Villages
o Urban
o Organisations
o Activism
o Transnational movement
• Feedback Loops:
o Language learning
o Interpretations develop
o Participation generates questions
o Method develops with context
o Working with local researchers
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