Anthropology (from Greek) ‘Anthropos’ (human being) and ‘logia’ (study) is the cross-cultural study of human behaviour. Anthropology is a wide and diverse discipline which cuts across the Social Sciences, Arts and Humanities resulting in a 4-fold integrated approach; biological (evolutionary anthropology), linguistic, archaeological, and social anthropology.
Social Anthropology is the largest area of specialism and aims to study cultural diversity around the world ranging from gender to food, art, religion, politics and health, but also adopts a holistic perspective that explores philosophical concepts associated with the meaning of personhood, the body, cosmology and traditional knowledge.
The discipline is associated with a lot of complex words, so hopefully this article will help to breakdown some of these linguistic barriers and make Anthropology modules at City Lit accessible to all!
Anthropology Research methods and techniques
Anthropologists aim to compare the global and local similarities and differences between their chosen research area whilst advancing their topical and geographic regional expertise. Preparing for social anthropology research is one of the most exciting stages a student or a trained anthropologist can experience. This provides an anthropologist the opportunity to either travel overseas or do research at home and observe people intended for study, which is known as ethnographic research.
Ethnographic fieldwork and participant observation
Etymologically, the word 'ethnography' originated from two Greek words ‘ethnos’ (people) and ‘graphia’ (writing) which can be interpreted in two ways. Ethnography is the writing about people, an ethnographic article or book publication which can be interpreted as a noun; and the term Ethnography is also defined as a verb, an active process for collecting fieldwork data and often termed as ‘doing anthropology’.
Ethnographic fieldwork is the backbone of anthropology and to be a skilled ethnographer it requires strong interdisciplinary skills, empathy, deep listening, research planning and organisation related to how you plan to gather your qualitative and quantitative data.
For example, you may be interested in the cultural meaning of body decoration and the role of tattoos, or the impact of global food in London and who eats what and why. Alternatively, you may research indigenous world art or textiles and people’s consumption choices, or the cultural history and movement of musical influences from Africa to the USA and UK.
The list of human diversity is endless, but the primary anthropological method used in ethnographic fieldwork is known as Participant Observation. This involves observing people or participants in your chosen ethnographic research area to collect fieldwork data and analyse comparative patterns of behaviour. However, the methodology or tool kit used to gather relevant data will invariably change depending on the project.
What research methodology will you use?
In addition to participant observation, this could include in depth-Interviews, focus groups, oral histories and visual research associated with cameras and gathering film footage.
Fieldwork
Traditionally 19thC Victorian anthropologists travelled overseas to far-flung societies to study remote ‘exotic’ customs including the meaning of magic, witchcraft and religion to tribal art, ritual beliefs and kinship structures in rural villages. Cultural reports were often received by British anthropologists from returning colonisers, missionaries and travellers, as early ethnographic research techniques were underdeveloped and difficult to verify, consequently the term Armchair Anthropologists became established due to research developed at home from university library armchairs often associated with 19thC racist, evolutionary conclusions.
Ethical considerations in Anthropology
The concept of ethics is critical for an anthropologist or student as it highlights the core question of safety and moral boundaries when conducting fieldwork.
Whether overseas or in the UK, how safe is the topic for the researcher and the researched? What physical, emotional, or psychological safety challenges might an anthropologist face when gathering knowledge in the field? Consider the role of female researchers, or when the topic is associated with researching violence, sexuality, mental health, or race? These are some of the crucial issues anthropologists must consider when doing fieldwork during their ethnographic journeys.
Notable figures in Anthropology
Notable contributions to the field of Social Anthropology have been made by Classical Anthropologists in the early to mid 20thC.
One of the first female American Anthropologists is Margaret Mead noted for her comparative research on Gender and Sexuality, Bronislaw Malinowski recognised for the invention of Ethnographic fieldwork methodology and going native, and French Anthropologist Claude Levi Strauss for Structuralist theory.
There are many contemporary anthropologists, but major contributions to the field are:
Danny Millar at UCL, London who is recognised for his international study of human social media use and a pioneer for the study of Digital Anthropology
Tim Ingold at University of Aberdeen who explores the world of Anthropology from a phenomenological, environmental perspective ranging from cognitive mapping to dwelling.
How does Anthropology help us address contemporary issues and challenges?
My area of anthropological interest is the meaning of space and place, vernacular art and architecture, and over the years as I have taught the Anthropology of Space, Place and the Cultural Landscape at City Lit and other established Universities in the UK and Overseas.
As an interdisciplinary area I have always been interested in the ways students interpreted spatial concepts and prior to the Covid 19 pandemic many of the wide-ranging definitions were often objective, rational experiences. However, during and post Covid-19, as the British Government imposed physical and social spatial boundaries upon society, the study of spatial behaviour and who did what, where and how was extremely insightful to address these unprecedented covid challenges. People understood the emotional value of spatial proxemics and placemaking immediately. In our post pandemic society, this has now transferred into the corporate world particularly in relation to employees working from home and the impact upon business practises and neurodiversity.
The future of Anthropology
Human cultures are constantly changing, and due to the impact of globalisation from the mid 20thc, one of the main shifts in the discipline today is geographical location and the way data is collected. Rather than physically travelling overseas to small scale societies in rural villages, today academic research is completed globally by locally trained anthropologists in urban towns and metropolitan cities. The impact of social media has also transformed the way anthropologists now gather ethnographic fieldwork data.
Fieldwork methodology is now also completed digitally. Anthropologists increasingly gather data and interview global participants online rather than face-to-face, and ethnographies can be published both as visual stories or verbal podcasts in addition to literary texts.
Digital Anthropology is the study of human-digital interaction and includes the increasing use and impact of social networking sites such as Tik Tok, Instagram, Twitter and WhatsApp upon global communities. Like it or loathe it, digital technologies have now become an important aspect of the world of ethnographic research. Not to forget the huge impact AI will have on the future of Anthropology, which raises further questions on what it means to be human.
About the author — Yasmin Hales
Yasmin completed a BA (Hons) in Social Anthropology and an MA in the History of South Asian Art and Architecture which complemented her professional role as a museum educator and curator at the Victoria and Albert Museum, London. Her research interest in the social use of space, indigenous art and vernacular architecture was consolidated through ethnographic fieldwork in India, and latterly she commenced a interdisciplinary doctoral research degree in the Anthropology of Architecture at Oxford Brookes University. Yasmin has lectured at various academic institutions including, Birkbeck London University, Goldsmiths, Faculty of Spatial Design at LCC, University of Arts, CEPT in Ahmedabad and Pondicherry University, South India. She is currently based at City Lit Adult Further Education, where she teaches modules in Introductory and Contemporary Anthropology, Anthropology of Space, Place and the Cultural Landscape, Anthropology of Art, Film and Photography, Poetics and Politics of Museums and Corporate Anthropology.
Yasmin recently participated in ethnographic research related to the Amazonian concepts of sound at UCL MAL Media Anthropology Lab (2023) and worked as a freelance educator at the Museum of Home (2022) and “Another India” exhibition at Cambridge Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology (2017). Inspired by her fieldwork in South India, Yasmin has curated an ethnographic film, and a multi-cultural photographic community exhibition called the ‘Talking Streets’, which explores vernacular art and architecture, and why different cultures decorate their walls and floors in different ways. Yasmin works at the Human Library which aims to promote equality and diversity that challenges stereotypes and prejudice often subjected to a range of social groups. She is an independent anthropology consultant and delivers a range of successful cross-cultural lectures and workshops at Anthropology for All
Study Anthropology at City Lit
Join us to discover some of the current issues in anthropology including thoughts on religion, rituals, culture, communication, art and more through engaging lectures and lively classroom discussions.
