7.1.

13
FIELDWORK
Fieldwork: A style of research based on first-hand systematic data collection
o cultural anthropologist use many research methods: interviews, surveys, census taking, mapping, document analysis
main research method: participant-observation
study people around the world, people from their own culture
PARTICIPANT-OBSERVATION
need to: immerse yourself in the culture
o learn the language
o live with cultural natives
o participate in native life
eat native foods at native times
o attend native events and ceremonies
7.2.13
ETHICS OF GETTING INVOLVED
Should we stand up for human rights?
o are human rights universal? are they subject to cultural interpretation?
ex. racism, unequal treatment of genders
There are things that we can agree are immoral: there are practice in our culture that other cultures would consider immoral
where to draw line? do we have the right to get involved and enforce human rights against other cultures?
we have to be careful about existentionalism
anthros usually work with less powerful groups
is it ethical to get involved/ not involved
do people have the right to come and change our own behaviors in our own cultures
should anthropologist work with the military?
o it would help to have cultural knowledge
o understanding culture (emic perspective of cultures) would help military
2004: US military started making an effort to have a cultural perspective
o started hiring anthropologist in the war/curriculum
o called the Human Terrain System:
300 million military program
embedded anthropologists with combat units in Iraq and Afghanistan
obvious that military could benefit
concerned about military's goal and the anthropologists' roles
militaries could be used to manipulate/control cultures
o suspended due to controversy in 2010
harder to find people that would work for the military
KINSHIP SYSTEMS
a system for organizing relationships that is rooted in biology, but defined by culture
o tend to be naiive about kinship
o different cultures define relatives differently
the ways we organize and categorize relatives are cultural and arbitrary
used certain set of features that change
kinship relationships are important: determines the most meaningful relationship
kinship determines:
o social position = kinship position (lineage)
o the rights, responsibilities, and obligations of individuals (who you can marry, where you should live, what children
you're responsible for)
ethnolinguistic theory: the terms reflect and affect the social relationships with kin
Lewis Harry Morgan: first distinguished different kinship categories and factors
Hawaiian system, ect.
Americans use Eskimo System
Seven factors to classify kin:
generation:
relative age:
gender:
Gender of linking relative (descent systems)

7.1.13
Lineal(direct descendants) / Collateral (kin related through siblings)
Bifurcation: distinguishes between mother's side and father's side
consanguine/affine (marriage /law)