To start, a definition of anthropology. Anthropology is the study of human origins and cultural development.
Is studies where and how we began through physical evolution but also
explains how we have evolved in our behaviors, rituals, beleifs, and much
more. Anthropology, when studying a culture and the people that share the
culture, uses research methods based in learning the perspective of the
members of that culture. Methods like participant-observation,
ethnography, interviews, surveys, and focus groups. But what does that
mean?
Ethnographic research is a qualitiative research method used by
social and behavioral scientists to understand a group of people.
Focused on getting an insider perspective, ethnographic research methods
allow researchers the tools to join a community and learn from within.
Participant-observation is the basis of ethnographic research.
At its bare bones, participant-observation is joining a community and
partaking in the day-to-day activites. This firstly is how the
researcher becomes an active member of the community, and secondly as a
member of the group allows the researcher to understand how the culture
operates from within.
Interviews are important for data collection, but are usually
used for qualititative data collection. They allow researchers to get
first hand accounts of their target demographic. Interviews are often
face-to-face and allow the researcher to ask a long series of questions,
often using the responses to ask follow up questions to get more
in-depth information. For this reason, this makes interviews good for
qualitative data collection but because of their time consuming nature,
they pose problems for data collection on a large scale.
Surveys can be used to gather qualitative data, but are better
suited towards quantitative data. Surveys are more impersonal and are
often limited to how many questions can be asked, but allow for larger
and faster collection of data. Surveys can be sent out to large
populations of people and the data can be synthesized quickly.
Focus Groups are used to gauge the feelings or opinions of a
small group of people. It can involve a discussion between the
participants about the topic, which can be used to understand how a
group feels about the subject and also how the individuals feel about
it.
How Can This be Applied Outside of Anthropology?
The skills learned and devleoped while studying or doing anthropology can
be applied in many other palces. Take for example corporate based
research. With their background in research, anthropologists know how to
conduct research studies to collect data. From qualitiative to
quantitative research, anthropologists have done it all. Beyond research
itself, anthropologists are expirienced with interpreting the data they
collect as well. Companies need researchers who can decipher data and how
to apply it to their needs. Anthropologists can take the collected data
and explain if there is a need for the product, how customers are
interacting with the product, or even understand how to market the
product. From trends, to user expirience, and popularity, anthropologists
are able to gather data and are able to understand what the data is
telling us.
