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The anthropological perspective is an incredibly complex and vast approach to our human civilization due to its holistic nature. The variety of research methods and subfields within anthropology are unique, as they often rely on scientific and humanistic disciplines to inquire about human nature. As such, the anthropological perspective reflects an overarching study of humanity, with a foundation in cultural relativism, fieldwork, scientific observation, data collection, and analysis.
Cultural relativism is vital to understanding diversity, social norms, and the origins of vastly different cultures. This is the current leading philosophy for many working anthropologists and is defined as an observation technique through which researchers understand a culture through the values of its population and not through their ideologies. This perspective seeks to reject ethnocentrism, judgment, and assumption of the inferiority of other cultures. Within the scope of research, ethnocentric perspectives are ineffective though most anthropologists, like other people, are always vulnerable to certain amounts of bias. Still, a culturally relativistic approach is essential in communication between individuals with differing backgrounds, values, and norms. As an example, the cultural shock and even discomfort that Elizabeth Warnock Fernea faced when assimilating to El Nahara, a remote village in Iraq, did not create an obstacle for her to understanding the local culture and lifestyle on a deeper level. Fernea approached the new environment without judgment and rejection, by participating in appropriate cultural and social activities such as housework, specific dress, and even learning Arabic (Warnock Fernea, 1995). Fernea’s Westernized values did not correlate with all local norms, such as the belief that not wearing a veil suggested immorality or lack of understanding of local customs translated to laziness and incompetence. As such, she may have disagreed with many aspects of local culture and lifestyle but approached the situation with cultural relativism. To create relationships with the women of the village, she assimilated to her best abilities and did not treat their culture and values as inferior or incorrect. This approach allowed her to formulate an informative study that would be much more surface level without the implementation of cultural relativism.
Though fieldwork may seem like an obvious aspect of the anthropological perspective, its effective utilization is vital to an informative and respectful study. The way an anthropologist approaches fieldwork dictates the depth of their understanding, the intricacies the subjects are willing to disclose, as well as a multitude of other factors that can contribute to the study. Most fieldwork is observation-based, with the researcher recording the day-to-day life of cultures, populations, and individuals for prolonged periods. Surveys, interviews, and questionnaires also become essential with informants and subjects, often steering the interviewer towards important aspects of their cultures, lifestyles, and societies. The result of the fieldwork can be referred to as ethnographies, accounts of a descriptive nature based on theory. Many of these accounts also bring further ethical dilemmas that anthropologists have to weigh, such as considering who may be adversely affected by the publication of the work, whether informants should be identified, or the resolution of the competing interests of the community and the funding agency. In the case of ‘In The Search of Respect: Selling Crack in El Barrio’, Phillipe Bourgois spent five years among Nuyorican crack dealers in East Harlem during the early years of the crack epidemic (Bourgois, 2003). Bourgeois was able to befriend people within the underground economy and crackhouses to such an extent that he came to observe the reasons why the youth are so susceptible to the criminal career path. Much of the interconnected social and economic factors were revealed to him through personal and seen cases of racism, historical colonialism, and inequality within the legal economy. His opportunity to have such a close view of the crisis may not have been possible without his involvement in his fieldwork. However, such deep understanding also allowed Bourgois to observe multiple ethical dilemmas in his work, such as the potential of negative stereotyping, elitist aspects of anthropology, and sensationalism of crime.
Within the field of anthropology, research merges both scientific and humanistic approaches to gathering data. Research may be deductive, like in the case of biological or archeological anthropology. It may also be inductive, such as in the study of language in which everyday language use may be collected and analyzed. Debates have divided anthropologists who utilize different research approaches, but anthropology is still widely considered a social science. Early 1800s analysis of indigenous groups living in the northern parts of North America was considered to be less advanced than other civilizations due to their continuing to live as hunter-gatherers (Spradley & McCurdy, 2012). This was because intelligence was associated with societal structure, with hunter-gatherers considered less intelligent than communities that relied on agriculture. However, such logic is flawed because it ignores many factors that influence the societal structure, such as the local ecology. The population of the northernmost areas is incredibly adaptive and inventive in terms of survival and long-term habitation. The very hostile area with limited plant life is exceptionally fitting for a community that is as well-prepared for it as indigenous groups are. In this case, a scientific approach, the assessment of local ecology, assisted with the realization that societal structure and intelligence are not directly related.
References
Bourgois, Phillipe. In Search of Respect: Selling Crack in El Barrio. 2nd ed., Cambridge University Press, 2003.
Spradley, James, and McCurdy, David W. Conflict and Conformity: Readings in Cultural Anthropology. 14th ed., Pearson Education, 2012.
Warnock Fernea, Elizabeth. Guests of the Sheik: An Ethnography of an Iraqi Village. Anchor, 1995.
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