Globe-Trotting in Sandals: A Field Guide to Cultural Research
Provides guidance in the practical aspects of fieldwork and gives suggestions for collecting both qualitative and quantitative cultural data.
The author was inspired by students and fieldworkers to write a practical field guide to cultural research for those who want to discover culture from an emic perspective. It is useful to ethnographers, development workers, sociologists, missionaries, and anyone who desires to study another culture in depth and covers a wide range of topics:
- Ethics in cultural research
- Preparation for fieldwork
- Beginning fieldwork
- Participant observation
- Language learning
- The ethnographic record
- Informal interviews
- Structured interviews
About the Author
Carol McKinney has MA degrees in Linguistics and in Anthropology, and a Ph.D. in Anthropology from Southern Methodist University. She did fieldwork in Nigeria and Kenya and is an associate professor at the Graduate Institute of Applied Linguistics, Dallas, Texas. She is a member of the American Anthropological Association and the Association of Africanist Anthropologists.
Preface
- Introduction to Cultural Research Methods
- Ethics in Cultural Research
- Preparation for Field Research
- Beginning Fieldwork
- Participant Observation
- Language Learning
- The Ethnographic Record
- Informal Interviews
- Structured Interviews: Beyond Impressions and Anecdotes
- Statistical Analysis of Social Science Data
- Demography
- Maps
- Material Culture
- Kinship
- Marriage, Descent, and Residence
- Life Histories
- Social Networks
- A Cognitive Approach to Worldview
- Values
- Oral Traditions
- Analysis of Oral Traditions
- Music
- Rapid Appraisals
- Social Impact Analysis
- Other Field Methods: Time Allocation Studies, Communicative Events, Modeling, LinguaLinks
- Completion of a Field Project: Publication of Research Results Authorship
1.1 Why cultural research?
1.2 Cultural research from etic and emic perspectives
1.3 Models for collecting ethnographic data
1.4 Writing
1.5 Professional strangers
1.6 Overview
2.1 Social responsibility
2.2 Principles for ethics
2.3 Relevance of research to a community
2.4 Ethics as a byproduct of cultural research
2.5 Summary
3.1 Selecting a research project
3.2 Research proposal
3.3 Literature review
3.4 Research hypotheses
3.5 Research affiliation
3.6 Length of cultural research
3.7 Health considerations and hazards
3.8 Summary
4.1 Site selection
4.2 Rationale for residing in the research site and role of researcher
4.3 Children in the field
4.4 Building trust relationships
4.5 Discussion
5.1 Process observation
5.2 Group dynamics and decision making
5.3 An ethnographic research cycle
5.4 Goals in ethnographic research
5.5 Research assistants
5.6 Everyday pragmatics
5.7 Culture shock, confusion, and stress
5.8 Events
5.9 Passive adaptational research
6.1 Benefits of a working knowledge of the local language
6.2 Use of interpreters
6.3 Which language should you learn?
6.4 Language learning plateaus
6.5 Levels of language proficiency
6.6 Language assistants
6.7 Equipment for language learning
7.1 Types of cultural data files
7.2 Suggestions for collecting ethnographic data
7.3 Practical considerations
7.4 Use of your field notes by others
7.5 Uses of an ethnographic record
7.6 Summary
8.1 Participant observation and interviews
8.2 Social norms in interviews
8.3 Interviews on sensitive topics
8.4 Use of local terms to guide interviews
8.5 Types of interviews
8.6 Motives of interviewees
8.7 Lying
8.8 Key questions
8.9 Types of interviews
8.10 Research colleagues
91 Participant observation, a prerequisite
9.2 Interview schedule or questionnaire?
9.3 Constructing a research instrument
9.4 Suggested minimum census database
9.5 Testing a trial research instrument
9.6 Sample selection
9.7 Possible data bias
9.8 Training research assistants
9.9 Administering questionnaires and interview schedules
9.10 Other relevant questions
10.1 Statistical computer programs
10.2 Normal distribution
10.3 Basic statistical concepts
10.4 Statistical tests
11.1 Uses of demographic data
11.2 Resources for study of demography
11.3 Population change
11.4 Demographic regime or demographic profile
11.5 Collecting demographic data
12.1 Initial sketches
12.2 Folk maps
12.3 Artistic sketches
12.4 Professional maps
12.5 Historical maps
12.6 Features of maps
13.1 Symbolism
13.2 Holism and material culture
13.3 Changes in material culture
13.4 Suggestions for study of material culture
13.5 Documentation of material culture
14.1 Kinship terms of reference and address
14.2 Kinship charts
14.3 Adoption, fictive kinship, and ritual kinship
14.4 Correlating kin terms with expected behavior
14.5 Genealogical method
14.6 Data to collect
14.7 Family
14.8 Parallel and cross-cousins
14.9 Kinship systems
15.1 Marriage
15.2 Residence patterns
15.3 Descent
15.4 Fictive kinship: Ritual kinship and adoption
16.1 Collecting life histories
16.2 Analyzing life histories
17.1 Social network research topics
17.2 Network analysis terminology
17.3 Collecting social network data
17.4 Analysis of social networks
17.5 Problems in network analysis
17.6 Computer programs for network analysis
17.7 Practice in network analysis
18.1 Methods for collecting cognitive data
18.2 Semantic relationships
18.3 Worldview
18.4 Cultural themes
18.5 Discussion
19.1 Values and worldview
19.2 Prime, focal, and specific values
19.3 Values from an emic perspective
19.4 Values correlated with subsistence patterns
19.5 Values change
19.6 Means of transmitting values
19.7 Contradictory values
19.8 Prioritization of values
19.9 Suggestions for studying values
20.1 Types of oral traditions
20.2 Suggestions for collecting oral traditions
21.1 Overview
21.2 Analytic perspectives of oral traditions
22.1 Analysis of music as culture
23.1 Rural development tourism
23.2 Field methods to use in rapid appraisals
23.3 Collecting BA data
23.4 Participatory rural appraisals
24.1 Project identification document
24.2 Quantitative data collection
24.3 Knowledge, attitudes, and practices survey
24.4 Project paper
24.5 Practical considerations
24.6 Changing development plans
24.7 Length of development project
24.8 Evaluations
25.1 Time allocation studies
25.2 Communicative events
25.3 Modeling
25.4 LinguaLinks
25.5 Completion of fieldwork
26.1 Goals of write-up
26.2 Beginning to write
26.3 Publication
26.4 Review of manuscript
26.5 Sharing your publication
26.6 Electronic publishing
26.7 Conclusions
Appendix: Resources
References
Index