Anthropology

The fully updated Second Editionof Analyzing Qualitative Data: Systematic Approachesby H. Russell Bernard, Amber Wutich, and Gery W. Ryan presents systematic methods for analyzing qualitative data with clear and easy-to-understand steps. The first half is an overview of the basics, from choosing a topic to collecting data, and coding to finding themes, while the second half covers different methods of analysis, including grounded theory, content analysis, analytic induction, semantic network analysis, ethnographic decision modeling, and more. Real examples drawn from social science and health literature along with carefully crafted, hands-on exercises at the end of each chapter allow readers to master key techniques and apply them to their own disciplines. 

Discusses methods for organising retrieving, rendering manageable, and interpreting the data collection n ethnographic research. A variety of methods are offered for transforming fieldnotes, observations, audio and videotapes, questionnaires, surveys, documents, maps and other kinds of data into research results.

Ethnographers spend a tremendous amount of time in the field, collecting all sorts of empirical material--but how do they turn their work into books or articles that people actually want to read? This concise, engaging guide will help academic writers at all levels to write better. Many ethnography textbooks focus more on the 'ethno' portion of our craft, and less on developing our 'graph' skills. Gullion fills that gap, helping ethnographers write compelling, authentic stories about their fieldwork. From putting the first few words on the page, to developing a plot line, to publishing, Writing Ethnography offers guidance for all stages of the writing process.

Ethnographic research is defined as much by its textual conventions as by its methods of data collection and analysis. Ethnographers reconstruct social worlds through their writing, and writing styles have varied between disciplines, generations of researchers, and theoretical orientations. There are important and long-standing parallels between ethnographic and literary writing. In recent years, ethnographers have become increasingly self-aware about their own and others' writing and have explored the possibilities of different genres. Authors have therefore experimented with different, alternative, modes of writing. Awareness of textual conventions (among anthropologists in particular) has given rise to the "Bcrisis of representation." This has led to radical evaluations of how ethnographic representations are constructed. Textual awareness has also led to critical reflection on how ethnographic research is read.

Creative and diverse approaches to ethnographic knowledge production and writing   Ethnographic research has long been cloaked in mystery around what fieldwork is really like for researchers, how they collect data, and how it is analyzed within the social sciences. Naked Fieldnotes, a unique compendium of actual fieldnotes from contemporary ethnographic researchers from various modalities and research traditions, unpacks how this research works, its challenges and its possibilities.   The volume pairs fieldnotes based on observations, interviews, drawings, photographs, soundscapes, and other contemporary modes of recording research encounters with short, reflective essays, offering rich examples of how fieldnotes are composed and shaped by research experiences. These essays unlock the experience of conducting qualitative research in the social sciences, providing clear examples of the benefits and difficulties of ethnographic research and how it differs from other forms of writing such as reporting and travelogue. By granting access to these personal archives, Naked Fieldnotes unsettles taboos about the privacy of ethnographic writing and gives scholars a diverse, multimodal approach to conceptualizing and doing ethnographic fieldwork.    Contributors: Courtney Addison, Te Herenga Waka--Victoria U of Wellington; Patricia Alvarez Astacio, Brandeis U; Sareeta Amrute, The New School; Barbara Andersen, Massey U Auckland, New Zealand; Adia Benton, Northwestern U; Letizia Bonanno, U of Kent; Alexandrine Boudreault-Fournier, U of Victoria; Michael Cepek, U of Texas at San Antonio; Michelle Charette, York U; Tomás Criado, Humboldt-U of Berlin; John Dale, George Mason U; Elsa Fan, Webster U; Kelly Fayard, U of Denver; Michele Friedner, U of Chicago; Susan Frohlick, U of British Columbia, Okanagan, Syilx Territory; Angela Garcia, Stanford U; Danielle Gendron, U of British Columbia; Mascha Gugganig,  Technical U Munich; Natalia Gutkowski, Hebrew U of Jerusalem; T. S. Harvey, Vanderbilt U;  Saida Hodzić, Cornell U; K. G. Hutchins, Oberlin College; Basit Kareem Iqbal, McMaster U; Emma Kowal, Deakin U in Melbourne; Mathangi Krishnamurthy, IIT Madras; Shyam Kunwar; Margaret MacDonald, York U in Toronto; Stephanie McCallum, U Nacional de San Martín and U de San Andrés, Argentina; Diana Ojeda, Cider, U de los Andes in Bogotá, Colombia; Valerie Olson, U of California, Irvine; Patrick Mbullo Owuor, Northwestern U; Stacy Leigh Pigg, Fraser U; Jason Pine, Purchase College, State U of New York; Chiara Pussetti, U of Lisbon; Tom Rice, U of Exeter; Leslie A. Robertson, U of British Columbia, Vancouver; Yana Stainova, McMaster U; Richard Vokes, U of Western Australia; Russell Westhaver, Saint Mary's U in Nova Scotia; Paul White, U of Nevada, Reno.

In Writing Ethnographic Fieldnotes, Robert M. Emerson, Rachel I. Fretz, and Linda L. Shaw present a series of guidelines, suggestions, and practical advice for creating useful fieldnotes in a variety of settings, demystifying a process that is often assumed to be intuitive and impossible to teach. Using actual unfinished notes as examples, the authors illustrate options for composing, reviewing, and working fieldnotes into finished texts. They discuss different organizational and descriptive strategies and show how transforming direct observations into vivid descriptions results not simply from good memory but from learning to envision scenes as written. A good ethnographer, they demonstrate, must learn to remember dialogue and movement like an actor, to see colors and shapes like a painter, and to sense moods and rhythms like a poet. This new edition reflects the extensive feedback the authors have received from students and instructors since the first edition was published in 1995. As a result, they have updated the race, class, and gender section, created new sections on coding programs and revising first drafts, and provided new examples of working notes. An essential tool for budding social scientists, the second edition of Writing Ethnographic Fieldnotes will be invaluable for a new generation of researchers entering the field.

This original and authoritative exploration of ethnographic writing comes from one of the world's leading academics in the field, Paul Atkinson. The third book in his seminal quartet on ethnographic research, it provides thoughtful, reflective guidance on a crucial skill that is often difficult to master. Informed throughout by extracts from Paul's own writing, this book explores and examines a broad range of types and genres of ethnographic writing, from fieldnotes and 'confessions', to conventional 'realist' writing and more. Whilst highlighting the possibilities and implications of ethnographic text, this valuable resource will help those conducting ethnographic research select and adopt the most appropriate approach for their study.

Effective spatial analysis is an essential element of archaeological research; this book is a unique guide to choosing the appropriate technique, applying it correctly and understanding its implications both theoretically and practically. Focusing upon the key techniques used in archaeological spatial analysis, this book provides the authoritative, yet accessible, methodological guide to the subject which has thus far been missing from the corpus. It can be consulted by undergraduate and post-graduate level students as well as instructors, researchers and professionals in archaeology. Each chapter tackles a specific technique or application area and follows a clear and coherent structure. First, is a richly referenced introduction to the particular technique, followed by a detailed description of the methodology, then an archaeological case-study to illustrate the application of the technique, and conclusions that point to the implications and potential of the technique within archaeology. The book is designed to function as the main textbook for archaeological spatial analysis courses at undergraduate and post-graduate level, while its user friendly structure makes it also suitable for self-learning by archaeology students as well as researchers and professionals.

The Oxford Handbook of Archaeological Ceramic Analysis draws together topics and methodologies essential for the socio-cultural, mineralogical, and geochemical analysis of archaeological ceramic. Ceramic is one of the most complex and ubiquitous archaeomaterials in the archaeological record: it occurs around the world and through time in almost every culture and context, from building materials and technological installations to utilitarian wares and votive figurines. For more than 100 years, archaeologists have used ceramic analysis to answer complex questions about economy, subsistence, technological innovation, social organization, and dating. The volume is structured around the themes "Research design and data analysis", "Foundational concepts", "Evaluating ceramic provenance", "Investigating ceramic manufacture", "Assessing vessel function", and "Dating ceramic assemblages". It provides a common vocabulary and offers practical tools and guidelines for ceramic analysis using techniques and methodologies ranging from network analysis and typology to rehydroxylation dating and inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry. Each chapter provides the theoretical background and practical guidelines, such as cost and destructiveness of analysis, for each technique, as well as detailed case studies illustrating the application and interpretation of analytical data for answering anthropological questions.

A wide variety of organizations are both creating and retaining digital data from archaeological projects. While current methods for preservation and access to data vary widely, nearly all of these organizations agree that careful management of digital archaeological resources is an important aspect of responsible archaeological stewardship. This guide provides information on the best way to create, manage, and document digital data files produced during the course of an archaeological project and aims to improve the practice of depositing and preserving digital information safely within an archive for future use. It is structured in three main parts: Digital Archiving - looks at the fundamentals of digital preservation and covers general preservation themes within the context of archaeological investigations, research, and resource management, with an overview of digital archiving practice and guidance; The Project Lifecycle - looks at common project lifecycle elements such as file naming, metadata creation, and copyright and covers general, broad themes that should be considered at the outset of a project; Basic Components - looks at selected technique and file type-specific issues together with archive structuring and deposit. This section covers common file types that are frequently present in archaeological archives, irrespective of a project's primary technique or focus.

This volume provides the first critical examination of the relationship between archaeology and language, analysing the rhetorical practices through which archaeologists create representations of the past.

America's best-known popular author of archaeology distills decades of experience in this brief guide designed to help others wanting to broaden the audience for their work. Brian Fagan's no nonsense approach explains how to get started writing, how to use the tools of experienced writers to make archaeology come alive for the general public, and how to get your work revised and finished. He also describes the process by which publishers decide to accept your work, and the track your publication will follow after it is accepted by a press. Dealing with several genres of popular publication-articles, columns, trade books and textbooks-Fagan shows both the differences and similarities in the writing and the publication processes. While speaking directly to those interested in penning for a broad public, Fagan's sage advice on writing and publishing will be of great value to all archaeologists and their students.

Biological anthropology is a diverse field, with countless research methods and techniques in different sub-disciplines. This book takes a critical perspective to the current state of the field, exploring theory and practice in paleoanthropology, bioarchaeology, and ecology. Contributors challenge how evidence is discovered, collected and interpreted, and explain that researchers gain insights by de-familiarizing themselves from well-known methods and taking a different perspective - 'making the familiar strange'. The book covers how researchers' biases and assumptions affect the interpretation of topics such as human evolution and population movements; race, health, and disability; bodies and embodiment; and landscapes and ecology. A final chapter includes a critical assessment of new thinking about technology, in addition to the multilayered and complex nature of both research questions and evidence. This is an insightful text for researchers and graduate students in anthropology, biology, ecology, history and philosophy of science.

Community Engagement Through Collaborative Writing: Storytelling Together is designed to support scholars and communities storytelling together to reach multiple audiences and facilitate social change. Social scientists, public health practitioners, community leaders, and others recognize that there can be no forward movement in addressing the problems and inequalities facing the world today without collaboration across interdisciplinary, multisectoral, geographic, and socioeconomic divides. The book uses real-world experiences to guide individuals and groups through a process of identifying the knowledge they have and sharing that knowledge through various genres. This process includes identifying and honoring different forms of knowledge, not just academic research and training. Combining the principles of trust and collaboration with practical tools, the chapters contain discussions, examples, and instruments for working together across divides toward a common goal of telling stories together. Community Engagement Through Collaborative Writing: Storytelling Together is a valuable resource for applied anthropologists and other social scientists doing community-engaged work for research methods courses and for fields such as public health and education.