Anthropology and ethnography

What is anthropology?
Anthropology is the comparative study of human societies in order to understand what it
means to be human.

Other disciplines, such as sociology for example, tend to ask people about themselves via
interviews, focus groups and surveys. But anthropology suggests that most people cannot say
why they live their life in a particular way. As a child we learn to conform to the behavior of
those around us which may make one person 'typically' south Italian, for example, or
'typically' north Chilean.

To explain these cultural differences, anthropologists enter a population as outsiders: women

studying men, academics studying farmers, a Romanian studying Italians. We do not see
culturally learned behavior as 'natural' since we study the way social practices, such as the
organization of the family, vary in different societies.

Not just tribal

Anthropology is not just the study of less developed societies. It is the comparative study of
all human societies.

Empathy
Anthropologists try to understand people from the viewpoint of those being studied. Imagine
a person whose opinions you disagree with and who disagrees with yours. Even if you still
dislike these views can you come to understand how and why someone might have them?

Not just ethnography

Ethnography is a means not an end. Only by comparison, generalization, and analysis can we
use these extremely local findings to reach general conclusions about humanity.

What is ethnography?

Holistic contextualization
The ideal of ethnography is to study the entirety of people's lives: their work, family
relations, religion and habits. Since people experience these things simultaneously, our
approach is holistic and true to how people actually live.
Participant observation
Anthropologists don't just ask people about what they do, they try to directly observe
behavior and participate in people's lives. For example, they might interact with them on
social media, help with child-care, or take a short-term job in a local shop.

Why did we spend 15 months in each field site?

1) To observe as many different aspects of people's lives as possible, with enough repetition
that we have a sense of a typical range of behavior.

2) To get to know a range of people of different ages, classes, genders, and other distinctions.

3) To know people well enough and gain their trust so our evidence covers private behavior,
such as WhatsApp conversations, and not just public behavior.

Generalizations
We recognize that every person in each place is unique, also men may differ from women,
older people from younger. We try to balance stories and generalizations, which are always a
compromise with that uniqueness. So, in this website, each discovery is claimed as a
generalization but is followed by comments from the field sites which challenge this by
noting the specific situation in each area.

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Ethnography defined

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=21&v=aOBh8haj4E0&feature
=emb_logo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_c1SUHTG6B8

For a deeper, theoretical perspective on ethnographies check out the notion

of "thick description" by Clifford Geertz.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=avW6g31hy-c

A critique of his work by a student which although has some great points is
more of a superficial commentary on Geertz's ethnographic fieldwork in Bali.

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=moE_o6KPizA

The first step is to have a topic and start searching for studies done. Ex.
"mental health ethnography; substance abuse ethnographic study". You also
want to look back at the classic studies to see what has been done on the
topic and how you can expand on it by filling in the gaps or providing new
information, here and now, in 2020 in a local community or more generalized
area (ex. American society) you are interested in.

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