The Importance Of Fieldwork In Anthropology

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Culture is an important concept in anthropology. Culture is defined as, "sets of learned behavior and ideas that human beings acquire as members of society. Human beings use culture to adapt to and transform the world in which they live." (LS:512). Culture has been used in anthropology to understand human difference, but within this understanding there have been benefits and drawbacks to the ideas of culture. Finally, the study of language and humans as symbol using creatures helps us have perspectives on different parts of the world. All anthropologists share a certain reliance on culture to have a starting point in understanding human experience as a whole. Anthropologists have used the idea of culture and fieldwork to understand human …show more content…

Fieldwork is a term that refers to the “anthropologist’s personal, long-term experience with a specific group of people and their way of life” (LS:5). Fieldword is important in anthropological studies. Why? This is due to many reasons. First, the main advantage of fieldwork is it 's ability to get a more in- depth study of a culture. But within these studies, anthropologists face many challenges. Anthropologists must be cautious not to change the normal state of the society they are studying because any significant change in the regular everyday actions of that culture are less valuable in explaining the culture itself and how they work as a society. Second, anthropologists must make sure who they 're speaking with are reliable sources, and represent the population as a whole. If the data is not reliable, the population is not represented correctly, and their data is not completely true. One of the last main challenges is processing the data that anthropologists collect. Their facts must be organized, and must be allowable to be interpreted by others of the culture. Although fieldwork may seem more challenging than beneficial, fieldword is one of the best paths for studying culture and obtaining

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