Doing Fieldwork: Methods in Cultural Anthropology

Vocabulary practice flashcards covering key methods, concepts, ethical principles, and theoretical frameworks from Chapter 3: Doing Fieldwork: Methods in Cultural Anthropology by Katie Nelson.

Ethnography

The in-depth study of the everyday practices and lives of a people, serving as cultural anthropology's distinctive research strategy.

Fieldwork

The primary method by which cultural anthropologists gather data to answer research questions by spending months to years living and interacting daily with the people they study.

Participant Observation

A research technique in which the ethnographer observes daily activities while actively participating in them alongside informants.

Thick Description

A concept coined by Clifford Geertz referring to an ethnographic description that explains not only a behavior or cultural event but also the context in which it occurs and its anthropological interpretations.

Emic Perspective

An insider's view of culture; descriptions of behaviors and beliefs that are framed in terms meaningful to people who belong to the studied community.

Etic Perspective

An outside observer's explanation of cultural behavior in terms meaningful to scientific and anthropological communities, informed by comparative research and theory.

Cultural Relativism

The guiding philosophy of modern anthropology holding that beliefs and behaviors should be understood from the perspective of the native culture rather than judged by an outsider's standards.

Ethnocentrism

The tendency to view one's own culture as natural, correct, and superior, using it as the standard by which to judge and measure all other cultures.

Contested Identity

A dispute or disagreement within a community regarding the collective identity or identities of the group.

Cultural Determinism

The theory championed by Franz Boas stating that one's cultural upbringing and social environment, rather than biology, primarily determine human behavior.

Armchair Anthropology

An early approach in which scholars who did not conduct their own fieldwork compiled and evaluated secondary accounts from travelers, missionaries, and colonial officials.

Off the Veranda

The methodological shift pioneered by Bronislaw Malinowski requiring ethnographers to leave the physical and social distance of colonial verandas to live and interact directly with native communities.

Kula Ring

An elaborate, multi-year exchange system of coral armbands and trinkets among the social elite of the Trobriand Islands studied by Bronislaw Malinowski.

Salvage Ethnography

The early-to-mid twentieth-century practice of rapidly documenting, photographing, and collecting artifacts from indigenous groups under the assumption that their traditional cultures were facing imminent extinction.

Noble Savage

A romanticized, inaccurate representation of indigenous or minority peoples depicting them as innocent, childlike, and uncorrupted by modern civilization.

Holism

The comprehensive perspective in anthropology that examines all dimensions of human existence by integrating biological, archaeological, linguistic, and cultural dimensions across space and time.

Multi-sited Ethnography

An ethnographic research approach conducted across multiple physical locations, particularly useful for studying migration, diasporas, and people in motion.

Inductive Approach

A research approach that gathers qualitative evidence to draw general conclusions without beginning with a narrow, predefined hypothesis to prove or disprove.

Deductive Approach

A research approach that begins with a specific hypothesis or question and systematically designs a study to prove, disprove, or test that proposition.

Problem-Oriented Research

Contemporary ethnographic research focused on investigating a specific, predefined topic or problem rather than attempting to document an entire culture comprehensively.

Mixed Methods

A research strategy that integrates qualitative ethnographic data with quantitative methods like surveys, statistics, and media analyses.

Interpretive Anthropology

A theoretical approach that treats culture as a collection of symbolic 'texts' to be untangled and interpreted for webs of meaning rather than tested as scientific hypotheses.

Rapport

A sense of mutual trust and ease established between an ethnographer and informants, creating a comfortable working relationship.

Key Informant

A knowledgeable cultural specialist with whom an ethnographer builds a close relationship to gain deeper insight, contextual clarity, and access to privileged cultural knowledge.

Genealogical Method

A kinship research technique that uses standardized symbols and diagrams to discover and map family systems, marriage patterns, and social structures.

Ego

The focal individual from whose viewpoint a kinship chart is constructed and to whom every traced relationship connects.

Life History

A qualitative ethnographic technique that collects an individual's personal biographical narrative to examine how culture and historical changes are lived and experienced.

Field Notes

The primary written record compiled by ethnographers detailing events, conversations, sensory impressions, verbatim quotes, and personal reflections gathered in the field.

Do No Harm

A fundamental anthropological ethical obligation requiring researchers to actively prevent legal, emotional, political, social, or cultural injury to their informants.

Informed Consent

The voluntary agreement of a participant to join a research project after being fully informed of its scope, sponsors, objectives, uses, and potential risks.

Ethnographic Authority

The textual style and framing through which ethnographers establish their credibility, which historically assumed an unquestioned, objective stance over informants' lives.

Polyvocality

The practice of incorporating multiple diverse voices into an ethnographic text, including informants' verbatim quotations and co-authorship.

Reflexivity

A critical ethnographic practice wherein the researcher examines and openly discloses how their personal identity, life experiences, and status influence their fieldwork and interpretations.

Diaspora

The dispersion or scattering of a population away from their ancestral homeland to multiple international or regional destinations.

Remittances

Funds transferred by migrant workers residing outside their native community or country back to their families and hometowns.

Land Tenure

The social and legal framework through which rights to access, use, manage, and transfer land are defined and distributed in a society.

Undocumented

The preferred, humanizing term for migrants who live in a country without official governmental residency authorization.