Читать книгу A Companion to Medical Anthropology - Группа авторов - Страница 49

Once a decision is made to conduct an applied medical anthropology project, it becomes necessary to clearly describe the basic “who, what, when, where why and how” of applied anthropological research. These elements are the core methodological components of applied medical anthropology. Theory frames the research and provides the overall direction that focuses the process. Methods become the active connection between theory and analysis. The “who” element is the sampling process (Trotter 2012). It is the systematic process for selecting the individuals and groups that are going to tell their important cultural stories and provide the basic findings that can result in some type of problem-solving applied action. The “what” dimension is the cultural domain (area of everyday life) that people are describing. The “where and when” elements of anthropological methods are the physical and temporal contexts that surround the individuals and their actions. The anthropological “how” of applied anthropology methods is a complex mix of interviewing, observations, participation, explanation, validation, and cultural learning that allows the anthropologist to match what people say and do, when they say and do it, and where these activities occur with the theory that will explain it. And finally, the “why” dimension of ethnographic methods is the opportunity for all of the participants (researchers and researched) to explain, interpret, and clarify what is happening from each stakeholders’ point of view.

There is a vast literature on human field research design, site entry, methodology, informant relationships, and the personal effects of field studies on the researcher. Older references tend to contain practical advice that is slowly being lost for new generations of more theoretically driven ethnographers. Newer works tend to assume knowledge of these classics, and expend their efforts refining theory, describing advanced methods, or defending the descriptive nature of ethnographic techniques in an increasingly quantified world. One of the earliest works describing the practical art and the science of ethnographic field studies comes from the Proceedings of the Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland (Urry 1972). but also includes Kroeber’s, Anthropology Today (Kroeber 1953) which defined a significant portion of the continuing anthropological research focus for generations of ethnographic studies. However, the period circa 1970 is clearly the benchmark era for systematic methods development in US anthropological studies. This time period also coincides with the rapid emergence and impact of applied medical anthropology in the United States. The link between foundational methods training and successful application is clear. Classic works from that time describe the ethnographic research process, its effects on the researcher, and the practical conditions one could expect to encounter in the field. Examples are Epstein’s Craft of Social Anthropology (Epstein 1967), the Glazer and Strauss (1967) text, The Discovery of Grounded, and Spradley and McCurdy’s (1972) The Cultural Experience: Ethnography in Complex. These works mark the initial formalization of ethnographic studies. Other “circa ‘70” books provide behind the scenes details about field research; a necessary complement to works which describe theory and methodology, but leave out the human factor. One edited volume, Marginal Natives: Anthropologists at Work (Freilich 1977), contains a detailed history of field work theory and research designs. Other classics of this period include works with practical advice for fieldwork survival by Rosalie Wax (1971) Doing Fieldwork: Warnings and Advice; Beteille and Maden’s Encounter and Experience, Personal Accounts of Fieldwork (Beteille and Maden, eds. 1975), which contain advice about overcoming the problems of doing research in foreign countries. In a more generic vein, a seminal text which links ethnographic research with larger theoretical concerns during this time period is the Pelto’s (1978) Anthropological Research: The Structure of Inquiry. Revisions in formal approaches to ethnographic research methods, training, and theory then begin to appear on about a ten-year cycle. Jumping forward to the present, the most commonly used ethnographic methodological texts are Bernard’s (2011) Research Methods in Anthropology: Qualitative and Quantitative Approaches and Le Compte’s and Schensul (1999, 2010) Ethnographer’s Toolkit, which is a multi-authored resource set for designing and conducting ethnographic research, including essential ethnographic methods. Specific theory and methods combinations are also extensively explored in the Journal of Field Methods, which provides up-to-date discussions of both midrange (testable) anthropological theory and methods.¹ These works have provided applied medical anthropologists with a substantial literature that is currently used in successful grant writing and the development of high impact applied projects.