2011 rey ty-ferraro-conducting research
-
Upload
rey-ty -
Category
Technology
-
view
273 -
download
2
description
Transcript of 2011 rey ty-ferraro-conducting research
Conducting Research
© 2011 Rey Ty
OutlineI. Stages of ResearchII. Data-Gathering TechniquesIII.FieldworkIV.Recent TrendsV. Ethics of Research
© 2011 Rey Ty
Stages of Research
5. Interpreting the Data
4. Analyzing the Data
3. Collecting the Data
2. Formulating a Research Design
1. Selecting a Research Problem
© 2011 Rey Ty
Data-Gathering Techniques
1. Participant
Observation
2.Interviewing
Structured & Unstructured
Interview
3.Additional Techniques
Census Taking, Mapping, Document Analysis, Collecting
Genealogies, Photography
© 2011 Rey Ty
Pains & Gains of Fieldwork
2.Bi-
culturalism
1. Cultural Shock
© 2011 Rey Ty
Recent Trends in Research1.
Reflexive
Methods
2. Statistic
al Cross-
Cultural Compar
isons
© 2011 Rey Ty
Reflexive Methods• “Since the 1970s, however, the
postmodernists… have ushered in a new type of ethnography that has become known as reflexive or narrative ethnography” (Ferraro, 2006, p. 114).
© 2011 Rey Ty
Reflexive Methods• “Being less concerned with scientific
objectivity, narrative ethnographers are interested in co-producing ethnographic knowledge by focusing on the interaction between themselves and their informants” (Ferraro, 2006, p. 114).
© 2011 Rey Ty
Reflexive Methods• “In fact, many ethnographers
today use the term research collaborator rather than informant” (Ferraro, 2006, p. 114).
© 2011 Rey Ty
Reflexive Methods• “These narrative
ethnographers are no longer interested in producing descriptive accounts of another culture written with scientific detachment” (Ferraro, 2006, p. 114). © 2011 Rey Ty
Reflexive Methods• “Rather, their ethnographies are
conscious reflections on how their own personalities and cultural influences combine with personal encounters with their informants to produce cultural data” (Ferraro, 2006, p. 114).
© 2011 Rey Ty
Reflexive Methods• “The narrative or reflexive
approach to ethnography involves a dialogue between informant and ethnographer” (Ferraro, 2006, p. 114).
© 2011 Rey Ty
Reflexive Methods• “Such a postmodern approach…
is needed because the traditional ethnographer can no longer presume to be able to obtain an objective description of other cultures” (Ferraro, 2006, p. 114).
© 2011 Rey Ty
Reflexive Methods• “we should avoid drawing
absolute lines between subjective and objective ethnographic methods.” (Ferraro, 2006, p. 114).
© 2011 Rey Ty
Reflexive Methods• “Instead, ethnography of the twenty-
first century is moving toward a ‘methodological pluralism,’ whereby all forms of information and all methods are considered legitimate, provided they help us produce a richer and more accurate description of ethnographic reality” (Ferraro, 2006, p. 114).
© 2011 Rey Ty
Statistical Cross-Cultural Comparisons
• “Because of the many first-hand ethnographic field studies conducted by the students of Boas and Malinowski, by 1945 sufficient data existed to begin testing hypotheses and building theory inductively” (Ferraro, 2006, p. 115).
© 2011 Rey Ty
Statistical Cross-Cultural Comparisons
• “The emergence of statistical, cross-cultural comparative studies was made possible in the 1940s by George Peter Murdock and his colleagues at Yale University, who developed a coded data retrieval system known as the Human Relations Area Files (HRAF)” (Ferraro, 2006, p. 115).
© 2011 Rey Ty
Statistical Cross-Cultural Comparisons
• “The largest anthropological dta bank in the world, HRAF has vast amounts of information about more than 300 different cultures organized into more than 700 different cultural subject headings” (Ferraro, 2006, p. 115).
© 2011 Rey Ty
Statistical Cross-Cultural Comparisons
• “The use of the simple coding system enables the cross-cultural researcher to access large quantities of data within minutes for the purpose of testing hypotheses and drawing statistical correlations” (Ferraro, 2006, p. 115).
© 2011 Rey Ty
Statistical Cross-Cultural Comparisons
• “The creation of HRAF has opened up the possibility for making statistical comparisons among large numbers of cultures” (Ferraro, 2006, p. 115).
© 2011 Rey Ty
Statistical Cross-Cultural Comparisons
• “…a host of studies using HRAF data have appeared in the literature, including…” (Ferraro, 2006, p. 115).
© 2011 Rey Ty
Statistical Cross-Cultural Comparisons
• “… studies on the adoption of agriculture (Pryor 1986), sexual division of labor (White et al. 1981), female political participation (Ross 1986), reproduction rituals (Paige and Paige 1981), and magico-religious practitioners (Winkelman 1987)” (Ferraro, 2006, p. 115).
© 2011 Rey Ty
Statistical Cross-Cultural Comparisons
• “potential methodological pitfalls” (Ferraro, 2006, p. 115):• “Much of the data contained in
HRAF varies considerably in quality” (Ferraro, 2006, p. 115).
© 2011 Rey Ty
Statistical Cross-Cultural Comparisons
• “potential methodological pitfalls” (Ferraro, 2006, p. 115):• “The coverage is uneven, with a
greater amount of material coming from non-Western cultures” (Ferraro, 2006, p. 115).
© 2011 Rey Ty
Statistical Cross-Cultural Comparisons
• “potential methodological pitfalls” (Ferraro, 2006, p. 115):
• “Because the data describe a wide range of types of social system (such as tribes, clans, nations, and ethnic groups), one can question whether the units of analysis are comparable” (Ferraro, 2006, p. 115).
© 2011 Rey Ty
Statistical Cross-Cultural Comparisons
• “potential methodological pitfalls” (Ferraro, 2006, p. 115):
• “There is a problem determining the independence of individual cases, for if a cultural institution that is found in ten different societies, should they all be considered independent units?” (Ferraro, 2006, p. 115).
© 2011 Rey Ty
Statistical Cross-Cultural Comparisons
• “potential methodological pitfalls” (Ferraro, 2006, p. 115):
• “There is a problem of functional unity: If, as the functionalists remind us, all parts of a culture are to some degree interconnected, how legitimate is it to pull a cultural trait from its original context and compare it to other cultural traits that have been similarly ripped from their contexts?” (Ferraro, 2006, p. 115).
© 2011 Rey Ty
Reference•Ferraro, G. (2006). Cultural anthropology: An applied perspective. Belmont, CA: Thomson Higher Education.
© 2011 Rey Ty