ANTH 195 Lecture Notes - Lecture 3: Institutional Review Board, Participant Observation
ANTH 195 Lecture 3
Anthropology as an interpretive science, not predictive
● Between setting down the meaning particular social actions have for the actors whose
actions they are, and stating, as explicitly as we can manage, what the knowledge thus
attained demonstrates about the society.
Challenges to data collection
● Starts with a question
○ Have to match right methods with questions/answers
● Gives impression of “frozen in time” when they aren’t
● Ability to generalize out of often very localized studies
Ethnographic Present (Critiques)
● Presents a community as if frozen in space/time outside of any historical context or in
isolation
● Romanticize the people one works with (too close)
● Omniscient third-person (not seeing presence of anthropologist)
AAA Principles of Ethical Research:
● Do no harm
● Be open/honest
● Obtain consent
● Weigh ethical obligations
● Make results accessible
● Protect records
● Maintain ethical and professional relationships
Institutional Review Board:
● To oversee and review ALL research projects involving research with human subjects
● Involves training, preparation, and submission of a research plan, review and approval
by the university’s IRB and submission of a follow-up report
How do we ethically document the undocumented?
● Vulnerability to law enforcement
● Use pseudonyms but show faces
● Role of participant observation
● Whose voice is heard?
Ethical concerns in presentation:
● How do you present other’s trauma?
● How do you represent violence
● How do you include photos recognizing the possible vulnerabilities to individuals?
● Immigration “porn?”
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
Between setting down the meaning particular social actions have for the actors whose actions they are, and stating, as explicitly as we can manage, what the knowledge thus attained demonstrates about the society. Have to match right methods with questions/answers. Gives impression of frozen in time when they aren"t. Ability to generalize out of often very localized studies. Presents a community as if frozen in space/time outside of any historical context or in isolation. Romanticize the people one works with (too close) Omniscient third-person (not seeing presence of anthropologist) To oversee and review all research projects involving research with human subjects. Involves training, preparation, and submission of a research plan, review and approval by the university"s irb and submission of a follow-up report.
