Week 3 Overview
Topic
Doing Anthropology: How do we research culture?
Goals
By the end of this week you should be able to:
- Describe three stages in the history of research in cultural anthropology.
- Conceptualize the several stages involved in designing and carrying out a research project in cultural anthropology.
- Explain how the research goals of cultural anthropology influence the selection of methods for data gathering and analysis.
- Recognize the difference between etics and emics.
- Define participant observation, what it involves, and why it is the central research method in cultural anthropology.
- Explain how microcultural differences affect research in cultural anthropology.
- Name several special types of data gathered by cultural anthropologists and provide an example of what they reveal.
- Describe key differences between qualitative and quantitative data, how the two types of data are analyzed, and what they reveal about culture.
- Discuss ethical issues in cultural anthropology research and how anthropologists face them.
- List major safety issues in cultural anthropology research and know how they can be better addressed.
- Discuss the culture of the Trobriand Islanders of Papua New Guinea and contemporary challenges they are facing.
- Recognize and locate the places that appear in the maps in this chapter and know something about their social characteristics.
Weekly Schedule
Due date | Activity |
2/4 | Reading:Miller Ch. 2 pp. 27-43 |