Disadvantages Of Cultural Anthropology

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Ethnographic fieldwork helps to define and distinguish cultural anthropology in certain ways. The definition per ethnographic studies helps to distinguish cultural anthropology from other disciplines and helps to understand it and how it is carried out. Field work ethnography defines cultural anthropology as holism, cross culture comparison and observation by participation. Ethnographic fieldwork has a lot of advantages.
Ethnographic fieldwork defines cultural anthropology to be holism. It stresses that cultural anthropology embraces a holistic perspective for the study of human behaviour. The study of cultural anthropology deals with the entire characteristics of humans. It then focuses on the relationship between the different facets of human …show more content…

If those who are being studied decide to behave differently during the study, then the anthropologist is likely to make wrong conclusions, and thus the research will not be very effective. The ethnographic studies usually take a very long time as it is very time-consuming (In Botin et al., 2015, p. 136). The anthropologists have to go and stay in the society that they are studying for a month or even a year as they study them. The anthropologist might make the wrong conclusion based on what they have observed in the field as they study. The anthropologists who make such wrong conclusions are the ones who are not willing to inquire for more explanation from the people that they are studying. In some circumstances, the anthropologist might be infringing on the right to privacy of those that they are studying (Walle, 2013, p. 101).
In conclusion, ethnographic fieldwork makes cultural anthropology unique as compared to another discipline. It defines cultural anthropology as holism in that is it studies the holistic behaviour of humans and how they interrelate with certain events. The study takes the form of observation by participation and cross-cultural

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