ANTH 1002 Lecture Notes - Lecture 3: Trobriand Islands, Cultural Anthropology, Participant Observation
Document Summary
1870s they used to just sit in a library in a chair and compile other people"s stories (from traders, merchants, captains, etc) full of biases and exaggerations. The field went from studying exotic people to any local communities. You still see what is valued in their societies. The researcher would have locals come to them while they collected data. So informal, they would interview while drinking a gin and tonic. You participate in the community and talk with its members. Learning about culture by living in a culture for an extended period. Bronislaw malinowski took this approach while studying the people of the. Was in australia when wwi broke out, and was seen as an enemy. Took the opportunity to learn about local people. Goal: to record as much as possible of a people"s language, songs, rituals, and social life because many cultures were disappearing. Most research was conducted in small, isolated cultures.
