Anthropology differs from other sciences that study human beings because it is comparative, holistic, and global.

Anthropologists study biology, language, culture. ANTHROPOLOGY started to separate from sociology around the turn of the 20th century. Anthropology emerged as a separate science as early anthropologists worked on Indian reservations and travelled to distant areas to examine small groups of foragers and cultivators. This type of firsthand personal research is called ethnography. Traditionally, they lived in relatively isolated areas of a society (societies) which they traditionally called primitive b-c of their simple technologies,

Survey research
Anthropologists work increasingly in complex societies; they devise innovative strategies for blending ethnography and elements of survey research. Research and ethnography Sociologists and social psychologists, political scientists, and economists have developed survey research design which involves sampling, impersonal data collection, and statistical analyses. Survey research usually draws a sample from a much longer population. In small-scale societies, ethnographers get to know most of the people but given the greater size and complexity of nations, survey research is impersonal. Survey researchers call the people they are examining respondents. Those are people who respond to questions during a survey. Sometimes the researchers personally interview the respondents, sometimes distribute the questionnaires to fill in. Sampling is widespread among people who live in the USA, Canada. It is the process during which r-ers gather information about age, gender, religion, occupation, income, political preferences. We can distinguish between predictor variabilities and dependant var-s. 1st work separately and 2nd together. For example risk of heart attack is the dependent variable and the predictors are sex, age, family, etc. In social sciences predictor variables help us guess how people behave, think, feel, etc. The number of variables influencing social identity and behavior increases with social complexity.

Ethnography
Ethnog. Emerged in societies with less social differentiation and more uniform cultural characteristics. It is not unusual to anthropologists to maintain a lifelong interest in the culture where they first did work. Often they do long term research there for many years.

Differences between survey research and ethnography

1. In s. r. the object of study is usually a sample chosen by the r-er.

2. Ethnographers do field work, establishing a direct relationship with the people they study. While survey r-ers often dont have personal contact with ppl. They may hire assiatants to do the job. 3. Eth-ers get to know their informants and often focus on a small numbe of variables. 4. S. r-s normally work in modern nations where ppl are litarate, permitting respondents to fill in their own questionnaires. Eth-ers are most likely to examine ppl whi cant read and write.

Eth-g-ic techniques
1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. Direct observation + participant observ. Conservation with varying degrees of formality fro the daily chitchat. Interview schedules to ensure that complete info is available for everyone The genealogical method Detailed work with well-formed informants about part. Areas of community life In-depth interviewing often leading to collection of life histories

Observation
Eth-ers must pay att. to 100s of details of daily life, seasonal events and unusual happenings. Observing the individual and collective behavior, they must record what they see. Though during the first weeks things may seem strange to the r-er, he will gwt used to that cultural pattern afterwards.many eth-ers record their imp-ons in their prs. Diaries kept separate from field notes. Later these impressions may help to point out the basic aspects of cultural diversity. These patterns and features are basic an fundamental, so that natives take them as granted. They are too basic to even talk bout them. First and forever the eth-ers must be accurate observers and rporters of what they see.

Participant observation
Eth-ers dont study animals or speechless beings in a laboratory as the pscych-ists do. Their subject are human beings so they cant control and manipulate them all the time. One of their ch-ic procedures is part. Observ. Which means that they take part in community life they study. They also take part in many events and processes that they are observing and trying to comprehend. Most anth-ists have similar filed expences.

Conservation, interviewing, and interview schedules

Participating in local life means that eth-ers constantly talk to ppl, ask qu-ons about what they observe.. as their knowledge of the field lang. increases, they understand more.. this process has several stages. The first is asking the names of the objects surrounding us, then forming more complex sentences and und-ing the replies. We begin understanding conv-s between native inhab-ants and groups. The authors did a survey that differed from standard sur. res. They didnt explore a local part of a society but the soc. as a whole. They used an interview schedule rather than a questionnaire . they met with everyone in the village and

made a better rapport. Like standard s. res. tho, their quest. gathered comparable info. It gave basis to assess patterns and exceptions of the village. Thus their interview survey provided a structure that directed but did not confine them as r-ers. It enabled their report to be both quantitative and qualitative.

The genealogical method

Early eth-ers developed gen-al notation to deal with principles of kinship, descent and marriage, which are social building blocks of nonindustrial countries. In the contemporary US most of their contacts outside the home are with nonrelatives. However ppl in nonind. c-ies spend most of their lives with relatives. Anth-ists classify such soc-ties as kin-based. Marriage is laso particularly crucal in organizing nonind. Soc-ies as marriages between tribes, villages create pol. Alliances. Abht-ists must record gen-ical data to reconstruct history and understand the current relationships. To do that they often use symbols as triangles for males and circles for fm-s.

Well-informed informants In every society there are ppl who by chance can provide the most complete and useful info about particylar apects of life. They are called w-I inf-s. e. g the author spent most of his time in the Betsileo village with a man named Rakoto who was a particularly good inf-ant. however when the author asked him to work with a group of 50-60 ppl, he called his cousin who knew more.the latter helped him with the tomb ge-gy. Rakoto joined him in telling the personal details about the decreased villagers.

Life hisories
In nonind. Societies indiv. Personalities, interests and abilities vary. Some of the villagers are inter-ed in etherr work and are helpful and pleasant that the others.often when they find smb unusual, they collect his life history. This recollection of a lifetime provides a more intimate and personal cultural portrait tha would be possible otherwise. His book inculed accounts that show how different ppl have perceived, contributed to and reacted ro changes affecting thir community. Life stories present members as individual facing common problems.

Free-ranging, holistic investigation

Traditionally eth-ers have striven to understand the whole of an alien culture. To pursue this holistic goal, they adopt a free-ranging strateg for gathering info. They move from setting to setting, place to place and

subject to sub. To discover the totality and interconnections of social life.eth-ers draw on various techniques all of which are to draw together a picture of an alien lifestyle. Some eth-ers are less holistic and focus on partic. subjects such as religion and economic life. eth-ic research is basic to the comparative and holistic perspective that distinguishes anthrollpogy.