Assignment 3 Anthropology
Chapter 3: Fieldwork on Prostitution in the Era of AIDS
1. Based on reading this selection, how is ethnographic research different from other social science approaches to research?
Answer: Ethnographic research is different from other social science approaches to research because it goes more in depth. With an ethnographic research you are required to eat, sleep, and breath what is being studied. In order to get a better understanding you will need to incorporate such living (as that of the culture being studied) into your life. It’s more of a research to gain the knowledge of a current situation as oppose to something that has happened in the past. For example Sterk was researching prostitution. She followed the lives of many prostitutes and encountered their pimps, customers and even drug dealers. She bonded with some of them to get a better understanding on their everyday life. Where as some other social science research involve digging up old artifacts in order to know what already occurred before our time.
2. What can ethnographic research reveal that other forms of research cannot? What can the use of questionnaires and observational experiments reveal about people that ethnographic research might miss?
Answer: Ethnographic research can reveal EXACTLY what is taking place. It will be able to pinpoint a certain occurrence. Ethnographic research observes the culture/life of a subject through the subject’s eyes. This allows them to better understand and explain what takes place on a day-to-day basis. Questionnaires and observational experiments can reveal the exact thoughts of the subject. Being the researcher you can’t expect the subject to trust you 100% and confide in you’re their true thoughts. They may feel more comfortable applying their thoughts to the paper knowing that it may not lead back to them if a name is not required. Observational experiments will enact the exact actions that would take place in the actual situation so researchers can
1. Based on reading this selection, how is ethnographic research different from other social science approaches to research?
Answer: Ethnographic research is different from other social science approaches to research because it goes more in depth. With an ethnographic research you are required to eat, sleep, and breath what is being studied. In order to get a better understanding you will need to incorporate such living (as that of the culture being studied) into your life. It’s more of a research to gain the knowledge of a current situation as oppose to something that has happened in the past. For example Sterk was researching prostitution. She followed the lives of many prostitutes and encountered their pimps, customers and even drug dealers. She bonded with some of them to get a better understanding on their everyday life. Where as some other social science research involve digging up old artifacts in order to know what already occurred before our time.
2. What can ethnographic research reveal that other forms of research cannot? What can the use of questionnaires and observational experiments reveal about people that ethnographic research might miss?
Answer: Ethnographic research can reveal EXACTLY what is taking place. It will be able to pinpoint a certain occurrence. Ethnographic research observes the culture/life of a subject through the subject’s eyes. This allows them to better understand and explain what takes place on a day-to-day basis. Questionnaires and observational experiments can reveal the exact thoughts of the subject. Being the researcher you can’t expect the subject to trust you 100% and confide in you’re their true thoughts. They may feel more comfortable applying their thoughts to the paper knowing that it may not lead back to them if a name is not required. Observational experiments will enact the exact actions that would take place in the actual situation so researchers can
References: Functionalism. (n.d.). Retrieved June 30, 2015, from http://anthrotheory.pbworks.com/w/page/29531810/Functionalism#KeyTermsandDefinitions Boasian Anthropology: Historical Particularism and Cultural Relativism