ANTH 1003 Lecture Notes - Lecture 4: Ethnography, Margaret Mead, Baffin Island
Document Summary
Research strategy that involves immersion and interaction with a community over an extended periods (1-2 years) Begin w/ entrance into new society (or set up as anthropologist to study own community) Many experience culture shock: feelings of alienation and helplessness that result from rapid immersion in a new and different culture. Involves acquisition of fundamental grounding knowledge of culture and adaptation to new culture. Develop network of informants (respondents, consultants, friends)--- people from and/or w/ whom anthropologists gather info. Interviews: mapping, surveys, census, kinship charts, video and audio recording, photography, silent observation, measurement and statistical data. Participating in given society but also observing social behavior and cultural beliefs. Combines subjective and objective views, etic and emic perspectives. Malinowski"s study in trobiand islands became the model. Context: empire-making, notions of primitive emerge through contact. Science: must observe, cant rely on what people say. Kula: natives just like you and me.
