Question 1

What is the difference between "armchair anthropology" and "participant observation"?

Accepted Answer

Armchair anthropology was a 19th-century approach where scholars like James Frazer stayed in libraries and relied on biased reports from missionaries or traders to draw conclusions about cultures. In contrast, Bronislaw Malinowski pioneered "participant observation," which requires the researcher to live among a community for an extended period, learn the language, and engage in daily activities. This "off the veranda" method shifts the focus from distant observation to gaining an insider’s perspective by experiencing the "daily grit" of a society firsthand.

Question 2

How do anthropologists handle the "Hawthorne effect" during their research?

Accepted Answer

The Hawthorne effect occurs when people change their behavior because they know they are being watched, which can distort a researcher's data. To combat this, anthropologists prioritize building "rapport"—a comfortable, trusting working relationship with the community. By spending months or even years in the field, the researcher eventually stops being seen as a "stranger with a notebook" and becomes a fixture of the community, allowing people to act more naturally and at ease.

Question 3

Why is kinship considered a "cultural construction" rather than just biology?

Accepted Answer

While biological reproduction is universal, kinship is a system of social relations that dictates rights, obligations, and power structures. Different cultures reckon descent in various ways; for example, in patrilineal societies, a father’s brother may be considered a "second father," while in matrilineal systems, the mother’s brother often holds more authority over a child than the biological father. Kinship is about "doing" rather than just "being," involving the daily work of caring, feeding, and protecting that defines who belongs to a group.

Question 4

What is the difference between the "emic" and "etic" perspectives in ethnography?

Accepted Answer

The "emic" perspective represents the insider’s view—how a member of a culture perceives and categorizes their own world. The "etic" perspective is the outsider’s analytical view, which uses social science theories to compare and explain cultural practices. Modern ethnography seeks to balance both perspectives to create "thick description," a term used to describe a deep understanding of the shared meanings and symbols behind human actions, such as knowing whether a wink is a physical twitch or a secret signal.

Question 5

How do modern anthropologists balance cultural relativism with human rights concerns?

Accepted Answer

Cultural relativism is the principle of understanding a culture on its own terms without judgment, but this becomes difficult when practices seem to cause harm. Anthropologists today often distinguish between "understanding" a practice and "accepting" it. While they use a relativistic lens to see the internal logic of a tradition, many follow a "do no harm" ethical code and focus on "empowerment" rather than "intervention." This involves providing communities with information to make their own choices rather than imposing Western values from the outside.

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