Cultural Anthropology and Ethnographic Fieldwork James P. Spradley (1979) described the insider approach to understanding culture as "a quiet revolution" among the social sciences (p. iii). Cultural anthropologists, however, have long emphasized the importance of the ethnographic method, an approach to understanding a different culture through participation, observation, the use of key informants, and interviews. Cultural anthropologists have employed the ethnographic method in an attempt to surmount several formidable cultural questions: How can one understand another's culture? How can culture be qualitatively and quantitatively assessed? What aspects of a culture make it unique and which connect it to other cultures? If ethnographies can provide answers to these difficult questions, then Spradley has correctly identified this method as revolutionary. Cultures are infinitely complex. Culture, as Spradley (1979) defines it, is "the acquired knowledge that people use to interpret experiences and generate social behavior" (p. 5). Spradley's emphasizes that culture involves the use of knowledge. While some aspects of culture can be neatly arranged into categories and quantified with numbers and statistics, much of culture is encoded in schema, or ways of thinking (Levinson & Ember, 1996, p. 418). In order to accurately understand a culture, one must apply the correct schema and make inferences which parallel those made my natives. Spradley suggests that culture is not merely a cognitive map of beliefs and behaviors that can be objectively charted; rather, it is a set of map-making skills through which cultural behaviors, customs, language, and artifacts must be plotted (p. 7). This definition of culture offers insight into ... ... middle of paper ... ..."Not a Real Fish: The Ethnographer as Insider-Outsider." In P. R. DeVita (Ed.), The Naked Anthropologist: Tales from Around the World (pp. 73-8). Belmont: Wadsworth Publishing Co. Mead, Margaret. Margaret Mead: Taking Note. (video) Raybeck, D. (1992). "Getting Below the Surface." In P. R. DeVita (Ed.), The Naked Anthropologist: Tales from Around the World (pp. 73-8). Belmont: Wadsworth Publishing Co. Spearman, A. M. (1988). Yoqui: Forest Nomads in a Changing World. Fort Worth: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, Inc. Spearman, A. M. Fighting the Odds for Cultural Survival. (publishing information was unavailable) Spradley, J. P. (1979). The Ethnographic Interview. Fort Worth: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich College Pub. Spradley, J. P. & McCurdy, D. W. (1972). The Cultural Experience: Ethnography in a Complex Society. Chicago: Science Research Associates.
Sir Raymond Firth famously said that ethnography “makes the exotic familiar and the familiar exotic.” You mainly hear stories of ethnographers and anthropologist going to other countries to study societies that are fascinating and unknown so that we can become familiar with their culture and understand. This is how we make the exotic familiar. Within our own country we are under the impression that because we live around these people we know them and there is nothing to learn, but when we step in and begin to observe what’s in our own backyard we realize there are things that we don’t know. This is what Philippe Bourgois and Jeff Schonberg have done in Righteous Dopefiend.
The field of anthropology looks at culture more analytically than any other social science. Cultural anthropologists are concerned with describing and analyzing societies and cultures as life ways. In attempting to study the life way of the Center members anthropologically, Myerhoff is beginning with the preconceived notion that there actually is a culture that exists among the individuals. It seems that she begins her research with certain assumptions about this culture. However, as her studies progressed, it is clear that she realized that her research would need to be much more intense than she had planned in order to fully unders...
Polgar, by Richard. NYS Bottle Bill: Deposit & No Return. September 2011. 6 Nov. 2015. .
Sewell’s theoretical perspective is admittedly self-constructed. He “borrowed shamelessly from such sources as ‘the new history,’ intellectual history, cultural anthropology, and certain new strains of Marxism” (1980: 5). I find borrowing from cultural anthropology to be the most influential of these theoretical viewpoints, and Sewell highlights the importance of ethnographic field methods in his work. However, he is quick to acknowledge that, from a historical perspective, conventional ethnography, as we understand it, is not suffice in this context. While traditional ethnography tends to focus on non-Western, “relatively small-scale and homogeneous societies” (Sewell 1980: 12), Sewell’s initiative is to “analyze the complex society that was rent by all sorts of co...
The role of PEDs (performance enhancing drugs) in world of sports has been the center of much controversy and debate dating back to the beginning of the Olympics, that has captured a considerable amount of attention within the past century. The revelation of PED use by star athletes has been a repeating occurrence in the world of professional sports. These allegations quickly turn legacies into scandals, for what one person once stood for throughout their career is now quickly overshadowed by the insert of a needle. The question then is, what if they were made legal? what would the reaction be and how would it change each respective league if PEDs were now allowed on the playing field? The use of these supplements has found its place in sports in a very timely and real matter, with many in opposition towards the use because of the growing concerns surrounding them, health and morally. In a closer examination of the purpose of professional sports, it is clear that the use of PEDs only bolster its purpose: allowing professional athletes to push to reach the peak of human perfection resulting in increased performance and success in sports from an entertainment perspective.
Nanda, S and Warms, R.L. (2011). Cultural Anthropology, Tenth Edition. Belmont, California: Wadsworth, Cengage Learning. ISBN – 13:978-0-495-81083-4.
Schultz, Emily A. & Lavenda, Robert H. 2005, Cultural Anthropology, 6th edn, Oxford University Press, New York, Chapter 3: Fieldwork.
Tynes, J. (2006) Performance Enhancing Substances: Effects, Regulations,and the Pervasive Efforts to Control Doping in Major Leagues. Journal of Legal Medicine. 27:493-509.
In the traditional sense, an ethnography was just merely an explanation of culture; how the interact, survive, and continue as a culture. However, in the contemporary sense, ethnographies are not only used to explain how cultures work, but to expose a problem within it and propose a solution for the problem that would work within the context of the culture. This sense of contextual problem solving is prevalent in the last two ethnographies we read as a class: Here Our Culture is Hard, by Laura McClusky, and The Righteous Dopefiend, by Philippe Bourgois. McClusky's study is on the issue of domestic
In the book titled Around the World in 30 Years, Barbara Gallatin Anderson’s makes a precise and convincing argument regarding the acts of being a cultural anthropologist. Her humor, attention to detail, and familiar analogies really allow for a wholesome and educating experience for the reader. Her credible sources and uniform writing structure benefits the information. Simply, the book represents an insider’s look into the life of a cultural anthropologist who is getting the insider’s look to the lives of everybody
Many Athletes are willing to do whatever it takes to become a professional. One of the easiest ways to enhance natural ability is through performance-enhancing drugs or, PEDs. PEDs are substances used by athletes to increase their performance. The use of PEDs in athletic competition can date back to ancient Greece. Athletes use PEDs to run faster, jump higher and recover at an increased pace. Many athletes are pressured into using PEDs by coaches or managers and are not thoroughly educated the harmful health issues that can come along with taking performance-enhancing drugs. A rising issue is if performance-enhancing drugs should be allowed in professional sports. I believe that in any professional sport, the use of performance-enhancing drugs by athletes should continue to be banned because this rule will help to keep athletes from abusing these harmful drugs.
The use of Performance Enhancing Drugs has been a big controversy in the world of sports. There has been debates on whether these drugs should be allowed into sports and be legalized. Over time there have been tons of athletes that have used Performance Enhancing Drugs and has been common nowadays. That is why many people believe that they should be allowed and they have strong arguments. If Performance Enhancing Drugs were to be allowed then it is said that athletes will become better and the game will be destroyed but that is not the case because not all of these drugs increase the ability of the user. That is because everyone’s body reacts to the drug differently. If these drugs were to be allowed it would make the sports more interesting
Performance Enhancing Drugs or PED’s have been around in sports for a few millenniums. PED’s are substances that help you perform to the best of your abilities in sports. These substances are always under scrutiny because of how they affect the human body and how they affect sports. PED’s have also been linked to deaths in some sports. In the past twenty years leagues and organizations have begun testing athletes for the use of PED’s. Considering that professional sports in America play a major part in society, it is important to know about PED’s and how they have impacted society today.
For instance, PEDs can cause cancer, acne, stunted growth in teenagers, liver tumors, aggressive behavior, and other harmful side effects. These effects could change athletes’ lives and potentially even kill them. Also, PEDs can cause reproductive issues, such as impotence (a reduction of sperm generated) and reduced testicle size in males, and problems with fertility and the menstrual cycle in females. These effects could change an athlete’s life permanently, as they might not be able to reproduce in the future. Finally, many athletes have lost their career because of PEDs. Lance Armstrong was stripped of all seven of his Tour de France medals and lost his career when he was caught using PEDs. Athletes who lose their career lose their source of income, possibly resulting in poverty. PEDs harm athletes’ bodies and careers in many different ways and affect their lives negatively in the
1. A thick description goes beyond ordinary measures, in search of a deeper meaning of a specific culture. Ethnographers must be able to evaluate what’s at hand with an open mind, questioning all types of behavior. All societies, big and small, are unique with a certain set of values and beliefs that define them. It takes time to form raw relationships with the community to better understand the interworking of their people. An Ethnographer will be able to grasp culture as a whole when he or she has become accepted instead of an outsider. Human beings are born with one set of cultural knowledge so stepping into a new environment takes a lot of digging to get inside a subjects mind. “Ethnography