North America Cultural Anthropology

Ethnography is a qualitative method of research in which the researcher takes part in the activities of a group such that they are able to complete their observations over a period of time in a natural, real-life environment.

Basically, it’s when an anthropologist conducts research by immersing themselves into a community instead of just reading about a society. The ethnographic method employs what is known as “participant observation,” which is fieldwork done by both observing and participating in an event. To gain information through the ethnographic method, an anthropologist can conduct both formal and informal interviews, and gain both qualitative and quantitative data. An example of a formal interview would be a sit down interview with a town official with structured questions, whereas an informal interview might be a dinner with a local family and gaining information by just talking to them and holding a

One theoretical approach in the field of cultural anthropology is the Feminist Approach. The feminist approach is an approach that helped females from all diverse cultures to band together for equal rights or more freedom for themselves.

Many questions are of concern to the cultural anthropologist. How do various peoples live? What provides meaning for their lives? What are their social values—what they have learned from others about what they consider important and valuable? What are their rules and standards for proper behavior? What is the source and nature of their knowledge about the world and each other? What are their beliefs about the supernatural? What are their marriage and family patterns? What are their political systems? How do they raise their

Hopewell prehistoric culture remains iconic in the American archeology. Due to USA political expansion into the Ohio Valley in the early nineteenth century, settlers became aware of the myriad of ancient earthworks making the landscape. The Ohio region was inhabited intermittently since the paleothic, with earthworks appearing in the late archaic. After bout 100BC there were many changes occurring on different fronts including the introduction ceramic vessels, increase in use of exotic items and associated trade networks. Adena was the cultural manifestation in Southern Ohio during the early woodland (Dragoo 1963). Cultural complexity within Adena culminates, marked the change in the middle woodland period;

Doing ethnography, again, means describing a culture. The ethnographer seeks to understand another way of life from the native point of view. Spradley (1979) rightfully places emphasis on learning from people rather than studying about people (p.3). A successful ethnographer not only collects data about a certain people, but seeks first and foremost to be taught by the people. Spradley and McCurdy (1972) note that "ethnography seeks to describe a culture using those criteria that his informants employ as they observe, interpret, and describe their own experiences during the course of life" (p.18).

I had not given much thought to Indigenous connections to Country or how past events have shaped Indigenous culture today. I was shocked to learn past Indigenous education policies developed by colonial and subsequent governments, despite many declined proposals by Indigenous people to change, sought to assimilate, or civilise Indigenous people (Groome & Garner, 1993: Miller, 2012). Through this, I have become increasingly aware of the injustices within these documents and cultural events. Knowledge of these events and past policy decisions and how they have and continue to impact on Indigenous Australians is essential for inclusive curriculum development.

Humans are flexible. People tend to transform their way of life and personalities as their surrounding changes from time to time. Automatically, these changes had caused them to create new cultures that occurs in their society. Anthropologist defined culture as the way of life of people which had been learned, shared and transmitted from one generation to another by means of languages and symbols. It has been recognised as the way of life for entire society.

An Applied Anthropologist knows that understanding other people around is necessary in functioning and interacting with others. Applied anthropology benefits humanity by looking at diverse groups and finds the similarities among them. The increasing number of people on earth consistently change because of the influences of other cultures and changes in their environment. Applied anthropology allows for people to have a broad open minded perspective into the unknown misunderstood cultural worlds of other people. They have a perspective on people and cultures different from their own. Anthropological analyze has been turned onto the cultures of today, including urbanized environments like Southern California where many sub cultures thrive

A cultural anthropologist studies culture by participating in an activity or event and asking questions. They work alongside the people they are studying in order to understand their culture.

Creswell (2007) describes ethnography as a “qualitative design in which the researcher describes and interprets the shared and learned patterns of values” (p. 68). Ethnographic research provides a study on individuals in their own environment. Throughout the research, researchers attempt to answer questions in regards to human behavior. According to Schwartzman (1993), “Ethnography is used for research involving cultural sharing, and is linked to the use of anthropology as a way to view modern organization” (p. 3). The researchers examine individuals from the inside in order to gain a better understanding of their actions. One of the keywords in ethnographic research is culture. Culture is the focal point of ethnographic research. As stated by Van Maanen (Merriam, 2002), “the result of ethnographic inquiry is cultural description” (p, 237). This involves the researcher conducting extensive time to the research.

The Merriam-Webster Collegiate Dictionary defines cultural anthropology as the anthropology that deals with “human culture [especially] with respect to social structure, language, law, politics, religion, magic, art, and technology” (1998:282). Anthropology, when broken down, simply means the study of man (anthropos: man and ology: study). The word culture comes from the Latin word “colere,” which means to cultivate, or to worship. When you understand the meaning of the word, it provides you with a better understanding of what the word represents. Culture is something people create and then “worship” as a way to feel like a part of something. Cultural anthropology aims to study cultures and how they came to form.

Ethnography is immersive research honed on a single culture.Ethnographers offer us information about cultures and what they do. Utilizing a descriptive approach, an ethnographer is inside of a cultural environment. Their goal pushes the mind to think beyond why a culture may engage in certain rituals. An ethnographer questions the vast intricacies of the culture as a whole. Detailed questions fuel the process for the ethnologist, What is the meaning of this ritual to you? What is your kinship?(Miller 2/6/2017). Remaining immersed in a culture yet still an objective observer is integral to ethnography, both from an ethical view and to conduct the most non-biased research possible.

The study of anthropology traverse across four subfields that focus in archaeology, linguistics, cultural studies, and physical anthropology. Each field can specialize in an area of expertise. For physical anthropology, the sub-discipline bioarchaeology, incorporates both physical studies of human remains while contextualizing the data found from archaeological evidence and other sciences. One researcher explains that, “information from the human skeleton can be combined with historical documents and material culture to understand social processes on multiple scales,” (Hollimon 2011, 163). Bioarchaeology is unique in that it bridges biology and social science to create new theories and ask more meaningful questions. The virtuosity of bioarchaeology and why it is important is that it is a heavy question based field. It contextualizes all fields of anthropology that can span into answering specific questions asked by researchers in archaeology, culture studies, and physical anthropology.  The questions that bioarchaeologists seek to answer can range from demography, diet, identity, food-ways, and mortuary analysis.  In general, the study of gender in anthropology is a relatively recent phenomenon that covers all subfields. Since anthropology is the study of all things human, it is interesting that study of identity and gender are only recently in the field. McGee and Warms (2012), claim the trend in studying gender lies within identities that do not fit traditional western

Culture is a group of people’s way of thinking, and is passed down and expressed through their art; art first appeared in the Paleolithic area with homo sapiens.