Dear anthropology friends, I'm new to this subject and want to complete it in next 1 month. (whole April) After that I'll study only for Prelims and will continue Anthro only after Prelims exam. But, next time I want to do revision instead of doing first reading of any topic.
Lets collaborate together and complete the syllabus. I'll provide daily targets to complete and questions to solve. I request all seniors and experienced friends to please provide feedback on the answers that will be posted on this thread. It will help everyone immensely and also will be useful for other aspirants who could read this thread later.
Note -
In order to gain maximum from this initiative, please first read the topic, understand it and then write the answer in your notebook or type here without cheating. Today's target (1st April) is to solve following 15 questions from topic 8 of Paper - 1 (Research methods in anthropology)
Question 1 - Discuss the importance of field work in anthropology and describe various tools of data collection.
Question 2 - Genealogical Method
Question 3 - Discuss the relevance of Case Study method of data collection
Question 4 - Relative dating methods
Question 5 - What are the tools of data collection?
Question 6 - Discuss the advantages and limitations of participant observations as a technique of data collection
Question 7 - What do you understand by the following terms? (i) Systematic sampling (ii) Stratified sampling (iii) Multistage sampling
Question 8 - Schedule and 'Questionnaire' in research methodology
Question 9 - Critically examine the contribution of Positivist and Non-Positivist approaches in Social Science Research.
Question 10 - Schedule and Questionnaire
Question 11 - Participatory Rapid Assessment (PRA)
Question 12 - Discuss the contributions of field work in the development of anthropological concepts and theories.
Question 13 - Trace the genesis and development of fieldwork in anthropological research. Assess its importance in the development of Anthropology.
Question 14 - Examine the importance of observation as a field work technique in Anthropology. Differentiate between participant and non-participant observation.
Question 15 - What are questionnaires and schedule techniques of field study? Assess their relative usefulness in anthropological studies.
Thank you. Lets start solving these questions
Comments
Field work tradition was started by Malinowski, during his visit to Trobriand islands and is immensely important for furthering the anthropological studies. Importance of field work in anthropology is due to -
(a) Field work ensures intensive research on subject matter, and produces variable and intensive data.
(b) Anthropologists are better able to explain and note various vital cultural phenomena's which are hidden from external observation.
(c) Field work results in enrichment of knowledge of various languages, artworks, customs, values and traditions in its original form.
(d) Primitive societies/bands/tribes are suspicious of outsiders, while field work especially participant observation lets them gain trust on anthropologist.
Various tools of data collection used in field work are -
(a) Questionnaire - A definite set of questions to be filled by the subjects.
(b) Schedule - A set of questions/instructions to be filled up by the questioner
(c) Case study -
(d) Interview - Asking questions directly in informal way. Learning the tribal language is compulsory for efficient interview.
(e) Genealogical method
(f) Life histories, Oral history
(g) Observation
(Other points after cheating -
(a) Members of community are unaware of researcher's purpose, thus their behaviour is least affected, and thus researcher can record their natural behaviour in group.
(b) Researcher can record context which gives meaning to expressions of opinion. He can also check the truth of statements made by the members of the group.
(c) Rare occurrences like sexual behaviour, family crisis and underworld activities are not available for direct observation by an outsider.
Genealogical method is use to trace the lineage or descent of a particular group. The Genealogical studies are helpful in ascertaining the demographic expansion and settlement pattern. They are also very helpful in understanding various social complex phenomena such as who gets involved in various ceremonies such as birth, death, marriage, and other ceremonial processes.
Pedigree Chart is used to show genealogy. In order to get the relationships and various kinship terms, the 'ego' is interviewed in objective way, by asking name of the person's who 'bore' or 'begot' him/her. The general terms of father, mother, brother, sister, uncle, aunt have different meanings in different cultures and couldn't be used directly.
Genealogy helps in census and helps in serving various functions such as marriage restrictions, property inheritance rules, claims to chiefship or other heredity roles, performance of magic/rituals etc.
Some problems related to Genealogical method are repetitive names, adoption of children in a particular society, cultural taboo to not take names of dead people, suspicious population which thinks that genealogical studies could be used for harmful things such as taxation etc.
Genealogy is very important technique in Anthropological studies, and systematic and effective techniques are to be used by anthropologist to arrive at right information useful for his research.
Please review.
Case study method of data collection has been of immense help to social scientists and anthropologists in holistic enquiry of a particular social unit, individual, social structure or institution.
The relevance of Caste study method of data collection is in following ways -
(a) Case study provides detailed data, and subjective analysis of case in hand. All aspects are given importance and thorough examination is done to prepare a holistic natural history of that particular case.
(b) Case study provides data in unknown territories which can be used for further research and thus finding solutions to problems unknown till date.
(c) Case study method provides base for other data collection methods such as Questionnaire and Schedule since these methods require holistic understanding of case in hand.
(d) Case study preparation helps the anthropologist in expanding his analytical ability and data collection skills.
(e) Case study also helps in preparation of historical facts and natural past.
(f) Case study is the method used to solve problems of applied anthropology.
However, there are some drawbacks of case study method -
(a) The case study process is highly subjective, with no scientific way to collect data.
(b) No comparison could be done, between different cases due to their subjective nature.
(c) It is highly expensive and time taking process.
Still, case study method is highly relevant to solve the modern mysteries of varied problems faced by social anthropologists in their quest for finding solutions therein.
Other points after cheating -
(a) enables to understand fully the behaviour pattern of the concerned unit.
(b) Researcher obtains the real and enlightened record of personal experiences, which reveal man's inner strivings, tensions and motivations that drive him to action along with the forces that direct him to adopt a certain pattern of behaviour.
(c) Helps in formulating relevant hypothesis, along with data to test it.
(d) Facilitates intensive study of social units.
(e) Enables the study of social change and dynamics of social change.
Limitations -
(a) False generalizations
(b) Assumptions non-realistic
(c) Correct sampling for case study not always possible in a large society.
Relative dating methods are used in determining the relative sequence of past events. These methods tell the relative ages and sequence of events, but do not tell the absolute age. Absolute dating methods such as radiometric dating methods are used for such purposes.
In Relative dating one of the popular principal used is "Law of Superimposition" which states that older layers will be deeper in the site than more recent layers.
Some of relative dating methods as used in Archaeology and Palaeontology are -
(a) Seriation (archaeology) - In this method artefacts from numerous sites of the same culture are placed in chronological order. It is used to date stone tools, pottery fragments, and other artefacts.
(b) Biostratigraphy Assigning relative ages of rock strata by using the fossils assemblages contained within them. Aim is to correlate the relative ages of different sections of sediments.
Relative dating methods are used where absolute dating methods can't be used or are not feasible. But, absolute dating methods do help in corroborating and providing proof to the findings of relative dating methods thus being complementary to each other.
Various tools of data collection are -
(a) Observation
(b) Interviews
(c) Questionnaires
(d) Schedules
(e) Participant observation
(f) Life history
(g) Case study
Advantage of participant observation as a technique of data collection are as follows -
(a) More comprehensive knowledge of the culture.
(b) Data is collected in natural environment as anthropologist lives among the people whom he observes.
(c) Some rare events such as sexual encounters, marriages, underworld customs, etc. could be documented which may not be readily available to outsiders.
(d) Anthropologist is able to explain the context in which the data is gathered, thus giving his notes meaning.
(e) Knowing the culture and language of people being observed, anthropologist can ascertain the truth of data collected.
However participant observations has several limitations such as -
(a) Anthropologist may not be welcome as a member of group
(b) He may be looked upon with suspicion
(c) Anthropologist may himself alter the culture of the people whom he's studying.
(d) Elites of particular field study, are more familiar with researcher, and in turn may monopolise him/her.
(e) Anthropologist may be asked to play some role, thus binding himself to certain tasks and people.
(f) Complex situation arises when two conflicting groups live together in same society and researcher has to gather data from both parties.
(g) Personal biases, anger, love, frustration, cultural difference may ruin the whole objective of participant observation.
Still, participant observation is a dominant and extremely important method of field study to gain insights on life of primitive, simple as well as complex societies.
Sampling refers to the process of selection of a representative population from whole population according to some fixed plan/rule.
(i) Systematic Sampling - It is an statistical method in which selection of elements is done from an ordered sampling frame. Sampling starts by selecting any element at random, and then every other element is selected after a fixed interval and time frame.
Systematic sampling should be applied only in homogeneous populations.
(ii) Stratified sampling - In this sampling method, researcher divides the population into homogeneous subgroups before sampling. These subgroups are mutually exclusive. Also, they should be exhaustive, in that no population element should be left out. Later, simple random sampling or systematic sampling is applied to each strata.
It is cost effective and reduces sampling errors. But, it can't be used when populations can't be partitioned into different subgroups.
(iii) Multi-stage Sampling - Here the population is divided into clusters or groups and then samples are chosen from those clusters. Even clusters may be subdivided and random sampling done from them in multi-stage sampling.
Ex - Choosing few states for housing survey, then choosing few districts from those states, then few blocks from those districts and then few houses from each block chosen. This way it becomes faster and easier to conduct sampling.
Question 10 - Schedule and Questionnaire
Question 15 - What are questionnaires and schedule techniques of field study? Assess their relative usefulness in anthropological studies.
Schedule and Questionnaire are both research methods for data collection in which systematic questions are made and asked from the population to be surveyed. But they both have some fundamental differences -
(a) Questionnaire is to be filled by respondents themselves without any assistance. It is mailed to them, and they have to understand and fill it, while Schedule is filled by enumerator who helps respondents in understanding the questions and gets their responses.
(b) Questions could be both close ended and open ended in both methods.
(c) Questionnaire is useful for surveying large populations in time effective way with less cost, while Schedule requires more time, and cost of salary of enumerators and training them.
(d) Methodology of both methods is to go from simple to complex, having clear questions, eliminating confusion in questions, having a pilot-survey to develop systematic questions/form, not asking too much emotional questions/personal questions, which respondents may not answer.
(e) Questionnaire may not be filled completely, and many forms may be returned back, while schedule gives more responses as it is guided by enumerator. Thus, questionnaire may contain biased conclusions.
(f) Personal contact is not possible in questionnaire and thus difficult to know who answered. Also, questionnaire generally suits literate and educated population, while vice versa for schedule.
(g) The success of questionnaire method lies on quality of questions itself, while success of schedule lies on honesty and competence of enumerators. Enumerators can also indulge in observation method, which is not possible in questionnaire.
Both, these methods are useful in anthropological methods in different context. Like for accurate data, from relatively backward population, schedule works better, while questionnaire works better when data is to be collected from large educated population.
Will pitch in soon..
Are you choosing a random topic from the syllabus for each day?
Positivist approach is related to empirical observation, scientific validation of facts and figures. Its mainly asks 'How much' or 'How many' as in quantitative terms, and tries to classify all data that could be directly observed and verified into fixed categories. This strategy was highly beneficial for approaches such as 'new ethnography' where data was gathered and classified into different categories, especially by field studies, and emic approach to linguistics and semantics.
Non-positivist approach is different in the sense that it focuses not on exclusive facts, but on idiosyncratic behaviour of human beings. According to it, every individual is unique having its own thought process, and cultural values and beliefs. So, social actions can't be generalized and idealized. Even the researcher has his own biases, cultural context and research environment such as funding, methodology and problem in hand, which impacts the final results of research.
Non-positivist approach has been used in 'Historical particularism' and 'cultural relativism' according to which every culture is different and needs to be studied in detail and individuals act according to their own cultural beliefs and morals.
Both approaches have their own relevance in different situations and a mixed approach is needed to gather correct data for solving the contemporary problems of mankind.
No, not random. Currently doing topic - 8 of paper 1. After this topic 9 Genetics will start. I've already done most of portions of Topic 1 to 7 in my notebook, so will revise it once remaining topics are done.
Syllabus of topic 8
8. Research methods in anthropology: (a) Fieldwork tradition in anthropology (b) Distinction between technique, method and methodology (c) Tools of data collection: observation, interview, schedules, questionnaire, Case study, genealogy, life-history, oral history, secondary sources of information, participatory methods. (d) Analysis, interpretation and presentation of data.