{"id":98,"date":"2020-03-12T17:11:01","date_gmt":"2020-03-12T04:11:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.otago.ac.nz\/anthnav\/?page_id=98"},"modified":"2021-05-06T14:32:43","modified_gmt":"2021-05-06T02:32:43","slug":"researching-like-a-social-anthropologist","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/blogs.otago.ac.nz\/anthnav\/practicing-social-anthropology\/researching-like-a-social-anthropologist\/","title":{"rendered":"Researching like a Social Anthropologist"},"content":{"rendered":"

If you read some of our \u2018About Social Anthropology<\/a>\u2019 and \u2018Thinking like a Social Anthropologist<\/a>\u2019 resources, you\u2019ll see that the field emphasises lenses for viewing the world, rather than a particular or narrow subject matter. But still, we are an empirical field that does research and gathers and analyses data! So, how do anthropologists do this?<\/p>\n

This 8 min video<\/a> profiles the fieldwork of three professional anthropologists at MIT in the United States, outlining their specific interest areas and how they ‘do’ anthropology – from Associate Professor Erica Caple James’<\/a> fieldwork with Haitian migrants and refugees at a Social Service Center in Dorchester, Massachusetts, to Professor Stefan Helmreich<\/a> going under the ocean alongside marine biologists, and Professor Heather Paxson’s<\/a> studying the culture and economy of artisan cheese making in Vermont! While they spend time in vastly different ‘fields’, they use similar methods and tools, some of which we explore below.<\/p>\n

\n

<\/h4>\n

 <\/p>\n

<\/h4>\n

Ethnography<\/b><\/h4>\n

Ethnographic research is a qualitative<\/strong> method for studying human cultures and communities through case studies.<\/strong>\u00a0It is based on detailed observations of people, in their real, everyday contexts.<\/strong> Anthropologists pioneered this method, and still rely heavily on it, but lots of other disciplines use it now, too.<\/p>\n

Ethnography has typically emphasised long-term<\/strong>, and in-depth r<\/strong>esearch. Historically, when anthropologists did ethnography, they went to live among a culture that was not their own. The place, community, or group they researched with was referred to as \u2018the field<\/strong>\u2019. So they went to the field, and did ethnographic \u2018fieldwork<\/strong>\u2019. Some tips for rich fieldwork is shared in this video<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Today, however, plenty of people research in their own cultures and communities (e.g. \u2018anthropology at home\u2019), online, or across multiple sites. Thus \u2018the field\u2019 can be fuzzier to define than it first appears. See also our \u2018positionality<\/strong>\u2019 section below.<\/p>\n

Although it doesn\u2019t require special or expensive equipment, it does take time (as this blog post<\/a> discusses in relation to market research), so it isn\u2019t always perceived as \u2018efficient\u2019. This blog post<\/a> highlights 7 characteristics of ethnographic research in a handy infographic (related to corporate research). Because ethnography requires a lot of time investment, some researchers may instead \u201cborrow ethnographic techniques<\/strong>\u201d (Wolcott 2008<\/a>), by which we mean they might adopt some of the strategies or values or ethnography, and adapt them to suit different projects.<\/p>\n

Some common values of \u2018ethnographic\u2019 research remain, such as having a holistic<\/strong> <\/a>and contextualised<\/strong> view of a particular place, event, social group or cultural practice. A core goal is still to gain (and communicate) first-person, or emic<\/strong> <\/a>understandings of lived experience, and a lot of this relies on a sense of \u2018being there\u2019. Social anthropology rarely tries to place the researcher as a distanced observer, but instead values the idea of the researcher becoming an active \u2018participant-observer\u2019 (though of course this can get messy, and requires lots of reflexivity<\/strong> <\/a>and attention to ethics).<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Participant-observation<\/b><\/h4>\n

This wonderful graphic comic uses mermaid\u2019s as an analogy, to show how participant-observation forms a central part of the process of ethnography.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Professor Alpa Shah. Photo credit: Andy Thompson.<\/p><\/div>\n

The comic is based on an article by a real anthropologist, Alpa Shah (based at the London School of Economics), who went to study a revolutionary guerrilla army, in India. The people she lived with were often painted as terrorists by the government and the media, but by spending time with them, she was able to understand more about the context of their lives, and their values, and to write about this.<\/p>\n

There is another great real-world example\u00a0in this 3min video<\/a>, focussing on a postgraduate student who spent 18 months participating in the Last Vegas \u2018street car\u2019 scene, as her ethnographic research.<\/p>\n

A further example is this 7min TED talk<\/a>\u00a0given by an anthropologist who studied garbage in New York City, using the technique of participant-observation – a research methodology that clearly applies to many diverse settings.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

<\/h4>\n

Fieldnotes and Thick Description<\/b><\/h4>\n

When doing ethnographic fieldwork, social anthropologists often collect data in the form of descriptive fieldnotes<\/strong>. This term usually refers to written notes, sketches or diagrams, although social anthropologists commonly take photos and\/or videos, and record interviews too. This short video<\/a> includes a professor talking a bit about what fieldnotes are, and what they are for, and this one<\/a>\u00a0is a vibrant piece from a PhD student doing fieldwork in Thailand, that talks about the many forms fieldnotes can take and some examples of his own.<\/p>\n

There is a specific mode of descriptive writing associated with ethnography, called \u2018thick description\u2019. Thick description means putting your observations in context<\/strong><\/em> and writing about their meaning<\/i><\/strong>, not just writing down the literal facts. The famous example is a wink – not just \u2018an asymmetrical contraction of facial muscles\u2019 (thin description), but something conspiratorial, flirtatious, humorous, or sassy, depending on the people, spatial settings, time of day, and other actions before and after (thick description). More on Clifford Geertz, who used this example and introduced the phrase ‘thick description’, can be found here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Interviews<\/b><\/h4>\n

Interviews are a really useful tool for social anthropologists. Informal conversations with people are a common part of participant-observation, in most settings; however, having a slightly more formal, recorded interview can extend or supplement these. Or sometimes, depending on practical or ethical constraints, there is no chance to do participant observations, and interviews can stand alone as a rich way to analyse culture and social life, through hearing people’s stories, studying language, narrative, emotion, and more.<\/p>\n

<\/h1>\n

Digital, visual, and media techniques<\/p>\n

<\/strong>This page<\/span><\/a> shares the work of the ‘Sensory Ethnography’ lab, that deals with cutting edge digital techniques<\/span>.\u00a0<\/span><\/strong>And <\/span>here<\/span><\/a> you will find a ‘learning pack’ (for bo<\/span>th teachers and students) focused on the variety of ways illustration can be used by anthropolo<\/span>gists. If you check out our ‘communicating like an anthropologist’ page you’ll see more ways that these types of data-gathering can also translate into unique outputs (like film, or dance).\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Reading<\/b><\/h4>\n

\"\"<\/a>A large part of a social anthropologist\u2019s work is reading what others have already written on our subjects of interest. It is important for understanding context, gathering multiple perspectives, and understanding theoretical (etic) lenses that have been applied previously. The type of reading anthropologists engage in when conducting ethnographic research can cross a number of genres, from ethnographies and other academic texts (e.g. peer-reviewed journals and published books by academics), to archival\/historical documents (first hand accounts, old newspapers etc), to current media coverage and social media. These are sometimes split into \u2018primary<\/strong>\u2019 and \u2018secondary<\/strong>\u2019 texts, which are treated differently – with \u2018secondary\u2019 texts being those produced by scholarly processes, and \u2018primary\u2019 texts produced within the social world\/s we are studying, and viewed more as ‘cultural artefacts’.<\/p>\n

Undergraduate university courses usually have a ‘required readings’ list for each paper. At first, social anthropology readings can appear quite overwhelming, especially when you’re transitioning from the sciences! Students often comment on how long the readings are, about all the jargon, about not knowing what to focus on, how they are relevant to lectures, or how to incorporate them into a research essay. Below we provide some tips.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\t\t