MODULE CODE: HRES 511

INTRODUCTION TO RESEARCH IN THE

HUMANITIES
MODULE TOPIC: FIELD RESEARCH METHODS

Prof Gilbert Pwiti

Department of Heritage Studies
RESEARCH METHODS IN THE HUMANITIES
 BACKGROUND
Research
• Systematic investigation of materials and sources to establish facts
• Production of knowledge(s) for various purposes

Method(s)
• A systematic way of doing something
• A procedure
 CONCEPTUALISATION &
DEVELOPMENT OF A RESEARCH PROJECT
• Research is undertaken to solve (a) problem(s)
• To fill gap(s) in knowledge relating to previous work
• To question a previously proposed/accepted position in a specific aspect of a
discipline
• To explore an entirely new question
• To search for new data to complement existing data
• To fulfil a personal life-long interest or ambition!!
 CONCEPTUALISATION OF RESEARCH
Within the broad subject context
• Topic formulation
• Research problem(s)
• Research Question(s)
• Research issues
Research is no longer conducted entirely for its sake
Need to consider relevance, significance, topicality, currency of the
issues/questions that we choose for our research
• Topicality/Currency implies important and popular issues of the day
• Eg Gender, disease (eg HIV AIDS, Covid 19), decolonisation, post coloniality,
climate change, economic development, sustainable development (SDGs),
social justice, culture
• Topicality means departure from tired issues eg Colonial history/Impact of
colonialism
• Eg Walter Rodney’s famous 1970s book “How Europe Underdeveloped Africa”
• These were topical, popular and relevant issues in historical, social and
political science research in the humanities in the 1960s into the 1970s
• Topicality, currency and relevance means moving from dwelling on the legacy
of colonialism!
• It has been suggested for example that in Africa, post coloniality should mean
historical research moving away from impacts of colonisation to research into
how Africa has been under-developing Africa since independence!!
• Involving issues of governance, corruption and political processes in post-
colonial Africa
RESEARCH AREA
• Research is undertaken in a context
• Geographical context/area
• Thematic area eg gender, feminism, spatial analysis, rock art, prehistoric
economies, ritual, kinship, symbolism, environment and culture
• Theoretical eg Investigation/application/testing of applicability of theories on
culture change such as:
• The origins and development of farming
• The development of complex societies/state societies/civilisations
• Population change/increase
• Human movements/migrations in the past and present
• Methodological eg development or testing of research models
• Development of new data recovery techniques, data processing, testing
behavioural models eg discard behaviour
• Methodological and thematic: eg Basic spatial archaeological surveys to
investigate a specific theme/issue
• Eg – factors behind the distribution of archaeological settlement site
distribution in arid landscapes such as the Northen Cape
• Environment, culture and settlement history case studies
Aim(s) – research project goal – What is to be done?
• Objective(s) – What is to be achieved?
• Problem statement
• Previous work/research on the subject/topic
• How does the proposed research link to previous research
• Questioning previous research conclusions?
• Providing new or additional data to complement existing data
• Justification
THEORETICAL/CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK
Research is guided by theoretical frameworks
• Eg Central Place Theory/Centre-Periphery Theory
• Agency theory
• Least effort principle/theory
• Environmental theory/Environmental determinism
• Social theory
• Economic theory
• Capital theory
• Post-colonial theory
• It is important to consider the relevance and applicability of the theoretical
framework that is used to guide the research
• This has implications for the methods that are used in research in the humanities
in general
WORKING HYPOTHESIS
• Research is usually conducted with a working hypothesis
• Situated within the adopted theoretical framework
• Middle Range Theory
• Working Hypothesis/Data/Interpretation
• The working hypothesis is closely related to the expected results/outcomes
and contribution(s) of the research
METHODOLOGY
• Determination of data collection methods
• Relationship/Relevance/Appropriateness of methods to the research
problem(s)
• Sampling procedures and justification
• Sample size and justification
Research Process:
Desktop research/Archival research (Library based research)
• Background research prior to field research
• Exploration of existing knowledge on the chosen research topic
• Literature Review
• Based on consultation of:
Secondary sources
• Published literature on the research topic eg books, journal articles, newspaper reports
Primary sources
• Original documents eg personal diaries, pictorial/photographic records and institutional
records
• Fall under unpublished work and constitutes part of archival research
• Material collections - eg For archaeological or heritage research, start with Museum
records & Museum collections
Planning research implementation
• Determine/Establish on-ground/field feasibility
• Preliminary field visits
• Logistical considerations
• Physical/Social/Political environment of the research area may impact on the
research and needs to be planned for
RESEARCH METHODS IN
THE HUMANITIES
 BACKGROUND

• Many research undertakings in the humanities eg Heritage

Management, Archaeology, History, Sociology, Anthropology,
Ethnography and Geography require original data gathered from
field studies
• Field research makes use of a variety of approaches for data
collection for the study depending on the research problem(s) and
the research question(s)
• The methods and approaches are usually used in combination for
maximum and effective data collection
 RESEARCH APPROACHES: QUALITATIVE AND QUANTITATIVE
• Research in the humanities relies on two main approaches
• The Qualitative and Quantitative approaches
• Approaches are used against the research background that:
• “Unstructured data collection is liable to lead a discipline into chaos”
(Binford 1965. “A consideration of archaeological research design”)
• Underlines need for a clear research design
• Data should be collected/gathered using approaches and methods in
such a manner that they are relevant to the research problem and the
research question(s)
• A good research design ensures that data are amenable to analysis,
interpretation and lead to a discussion and meaningful conclusions
UNSTRUCTURED DATA COLLECTION LEADING TO CHAOS
 QUALITATIVE RESEARCH
• Qualitative research has its roots in the social sciences
• It has to do with obtaining data sets that are not measurable and
reducible to statistically testable phenomena
• It is concerned with understanding human/people behaviors and
ways of thinking and why they behave as they do
• Concerned with human grounded/formulated opinions and
judgements
• Concerned with peoples’ interpretations of events in the past and
present, their knowledges, attitudes, beliefs, fears, likes, dislikes
• Qualitative research is therefore the process of collecting,
analyzing, and interpreting non-numerical data, such as belief
systems, social practices or political opinions
• Qualitative research can be used to understand how
individuals perceive, derive meaning and give meaning to their
socio-cultural identities and reality
• Eg what religion and why they believe in the particular religion
• Qualitative research can be used to reconstruct history based
on individual or group narratives about the past, their
understanding of when, how, where and why certain events
occurred
• There can be different versions of such pasts
• Depending on who is giving the narrative and why
• History matters!!
• The way it is understood and interpreted has implications and
impacts on the present
• The different versions of such pasts cannot be measured and
reduced to numericals although they can be analysed and
assessed
• In the final analysis, qualitative research is about collecting
data that have to do with:
• Assessing opinions, ways of knowing, beliefs, attitudes, social
behaviors and ways of thinking, cosmology/world views
 QUANTITATIVE APPROACH
• Quantity can be defined as an amount, measure or number
• It is something, such as a number or a symbol that represents a
value
• It represents a value about which a statistical or mathematical
calculation or operation can be performed, and a judgement
expressed
• It is a measurable that can be assessed as mathematically
significant or statistically significant or meaningful
• Can be subjected to a test of significance
• Can be stated/expressed as a fact based on the outcome of the
research
• It is not a probable but is real and accepted as such, unless the
data were badly collected or manipulated in some way
• The quantitative approach makes it possible to state things
unequivocally, or to make unequivocal conclusions eg:
• “Based on the field survey data collected and analysed in this
research, it can be concluded that Iron Age settlement sites in the Shashi-
Limpopo basin of South Africa increased significantly towards the end of the
1st Millennium AD”
• Such an unequivocal statement would be based on base line data
and survey of measurable and quantifiable results of an
archaeological survey of the area under study
• Quantitative research is concerned with counting and measuring
things, to produce mathematical or statistical averages
• Eg Firm conclusions can be made on differences between Iron Age
settlement site distributions in the arid Northern Cape Province and
the wetter Limpopo Province during a particular period in the past
• Quantitative research involves the collection of data so that
information can be quantified and subjected to statistical treatment
• Can then be used to support, refute or question past knowledge
claims
• Eg “The new data from this research support previous conclusions that
there were major differences in the occupation history of arid areas and
wet areas during the Iron Age of South Africa”
• Eg “The data from this study suggest that there was no relationship
between environment and culture in South Africa during the Iron Age
as previously claimed by Miniyenkosi (2007)”
• Quantitative research uses mathematical models as the
methodology of data analysis.
• The quantitative approach is therefore about gathering quantifiable
and measurable research data
• In some ways therefore, quantitative research can be seen as the
opposite of qualitative research which involves collecting and
analyzing intangible non-numerical data
 MIXED METHODS: QUANTITATIVE &
QUALITATIVE

• Qualitative and Quantitative research approaches are not mutually

exclusive and are often used together in archaeological research
• They often speak to each other and often complement each other
• Qualitative and Quantitative research approaches are therefore widely
used in both the natural and social sciences such as biology, chemistry,
psychology, economics, sociology, marketing, anthropology,
archaeology, history, political Science and a host of other disciplines
• Qualitative data is descriptive and relates to phenomenon which can
be observed while quantitative research is about numbers and the
measurability of such data
 INTEGRATION OF QUANTITATIVE &
QUALITATIVE
• An example of the application of both approaches is an investigation
of human settlement location patterns in a given space and historical
time period
• Eg Settlement Location in Rural Mpumalanga: AD 1800-1900
• Quantitative - The settlement locational behaviour patterns can be
recorded on the ground and are measurable/quantifiable at the end
of the study
• Eg 72% of the settlements were located on hilltops during the period
under study
• Therefore, the majority of the people preferred to settle on hilltops
• The factors/reasons that influenced the settlement location during the
period are however, qualitative, varied and intangible and may include:
• Religious beliefs
• Security/Defence considerations
• Social status
• Social eg kinship relations
• Just so
• The factors/reasons behind settlement location are qualitative in nature
and based on different perceptions/readings of the landscape among the
actors and may not be measurable
• The study is however still amenable to the integration of quantitative &
qualitative approaches
• Numbers of settlements in different locational contexts (quantitative) and
why (qualitative)
 Research Approaches: Summary
• There have been some debates on Quantitative and Qualitative as research
approaches
• Debates have however been more in the context of the field methods applied
within the different approaches
• Both are strong approaches to research in the humanities and in other
disciplines/fields
• In the final analysis, the adoption of one or the other in a research project is a
function of several considerations
• These considerations rest on, and are decided on the basis of:
• the nature of the research problem
• the research questions
• the research issues
• the data sets that are required and necessary