Bryan Espinal

Dr. Brook
Anthropology
5 March 2012




Midterm 1








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Part A (2)
Participant observation, for many years, has been a hallmark anthropological
study. In recent years, the field of education has seen an increase in the number of
qualitative studies that include participant observation as a way to collect
information. Qualitative methods of data collection, such as interviewing,
observation, and document analysis, have been included under the umbrella term of
"ethnographic methods" in recent years Aspects of observation discussed herein
include various definitions of participant observation, some history of its use, the
purposes for which such observation is used, the stances or roles of the observer,
and additional information about when, what, and how to observe
It is also a structured type of research strategy. It is a widely used methodology in
many disciplines, particularly, cultural anthropology. Its aim is to gain a close and
intimate familiarity with a given group of individuals (such cultural group, or a
particular community) and their practices through an intensive involvement with
people in their natural environment, usually over an extended period of time.
Observation methods are useful to anthropologists in a variety of ways. They
provide researchers with ways to check for nonverbal expression of feelings,
determine who interacts with whom, grasp how participants communicate with
each other, and check for how much time is spent on various activities. Participant
observation allows researchers to check definitions of terms that participants use in
interviews, observe events that informants may be unable or unwilling to share
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when doing so would be impolitic, impolite, or insensitive, and observe situations
informants have described in interviews, thereby making them aware of distortions
or inaccuracies in description provided by those informants.
They suggest that participant observation be used as a way to increase the
validity

of the study, as observations may help the researcher have a better
understanding of the context and phenomenon under study. Therefore participant
observation is used to help the researcher get the feel for how things are organized
and prioritized, how people interrelate, and what are the cultural parameters; to
show the researcher what the cultural members deem to be important in manners,
leadership, politics, social interaction, and taboos; to help the researcher become
known to the cultural members, thereby easing facilitation of the research process;
and to provide the researcher with a source of questions to be addressed with
participants
The word "informant" is an anthropological concept, a common term for
people one meets in the field and gets information from. They are important
because since the goal of fieldwork is to obtain information, it is self-evident that the
"informants" must have a central place in anthropology. The concept arose in an era
when anthropologists mostly studied distant tribal peoples, with little contact with
the Western world, and few opportunities to influence or respond to the written
work of anthropologists. As soon as fieldwork was over, the "informants" became
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silent, and so it was easy to think of them as passive objects of anthropological
study, rather than as active participants in the research process. Anthropologists
make a long-term commitment when doing fieldwork in another society. The
fieldwork usually involves spending a year or more in another society, living with
different people and learning about their ways of life. It is a long process because
anthropologist needs to study that specific society and gather information. They
must also adapt to the way they live, a process that does not happen over night. here
are various levels of participation for a researcher in an ethnographic study; this can
span the range from fully becoming part of a specific group and participating in its
day-to-day life, to taking a more hands-off role as researcher/observer.
Participation is often encouraged in ethnography, since it is considered the
best way for the researcher to not only collect data, but also gain an "insider"
understanding of the subjects' experiences. For anthropologists, the goal is to gain
the point of view of the subject, rather than retain the point of view of an outsider.
Ethnography is considered a qualitative research method. The goal of qualitative
research is to gain depth of knowledge of a subject. For instance, an ethnographer
will collect information about the daily experiences, including rituals, celebrations
and social interactions of a group of people. The researcher focuses on a small group
and the collection of data is usually informal. Ethnography research rarely uses
statistical data analysis, but more often relies on interpretation of data, and involves
reviewing the verbal descriptions and explanations of what was observed. This is
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why it is very important and useful.
Participant observation has helped the Turnbull figure out about significant
aspects of the culture of the Pygmies. Cooperation and sharing are fundamental to
their lives, their relationship to the forest shapes all their experiences, there are no
leaders and no social classes, there is no private ownership of the land, no
inheritance of it from parents to children. Thus, at birth, all children begin equal.
None of them own any land or other major property and all can learn whatever they
wish from any adult in the group. Thus, there is equality, but not sameness - each
Mbuti is very much a distinct individual. There is communal raising of children.
There are no courts, police, and government, and the community as a whole gets
involved in settling disputes. Women and men have equal status, according to
Turnbull. The Pygmies are not perfect, by any means. But they live in relative
harmony with their world, have close social relationships, and have no major social
problems. They find security and they value people, family, the forest, community,
sharing - not material possessions.
As described in The Forest People, the molimo is the most powerful and
prominent experience of Mbuti life. Turnbull first hears the molimo during his 1954
visit, while the Mbuti are in the village (and presumably without villagers around).
In the book, he says: "It was a deep, gentle, lowing sound, sometimes breaking off
into a quiet falsetto, sometimes growling like a leopard. As the men sang their songs
of praise to the forest, the molimo [here meaning the instrument] answered them,
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first on this side, then on that, moving around so swiftly and silently that it seemed
to be everywhere at once... the sound was sad and wistful, and immensely beautiful"
(pp. 24-25).
When Turnbull returns in 1957, he is eager to hear the molimo again, and to
see it for the first time. He gets the opportunity when the Mbuti leave the village for
a forest camp, there to hold a molimo for Balekimito, a beloved old woman who has
just died. The Mbuti hold the molimo to celebrate her life and pay homage to the
forest. Turnbull goes with them to this forest camp, and joins the men in their night
sessions of singing, dancing, and eating. In chapters 4 and 5 of The Forest People, he
describes these sessions and their meaning. "Every day, around midday, a couple of
youths would go around the camp ... collecting offerings of food and firewood from
hut to hut, for the molimo concerns everyone, and everyone must contribute. And
each evening the women and children shut themselves up in their huts after the
evening meal, for the molimo is mainly the concern of the men. And when the
women have retired the men sit around the kumamolimo - the hearth of the molimo
- and gaze into the molimo fire. Nearby a basket hangs, full of the offerings of food
that will be eaten later. But first the men must sing, for this is the real work of the
molimo, as the say; to eat and to sing, to eat and to sing" (p. 80). (For me, and
probably for most readers, Turnbull's description and discussion of the molimo are
the center and essence of The Forest People, and of the Mbuti people. Turnbull
loosely translates one of their songs: "There is darkness all around us; but if
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darkness is, and the darkness is of the forest, then the darkness must be good" (p.
93). The molimo celebrations bring the Mbuti closer to the forest, their father and
mother. Turnbull thinks that the molimo binds them together, it counteracts forces
that divide them.
Elima is the Bantu word for female coming of age marked by the first
appearance of menstrual blood. . Unlike the nkumbi, both villagers and Pygmies
carry out the elima activities separately, and their attitudes towards this important
even in a young womans life are completely different. There is a period of seclusion
but it is one of happy preparation, and the girl takes her friends with her, including
those who have not reached maturity and some who have. In this elima house, a
respected older relative gives motherhood lessons, including adult womens song.
Pygmies come to visit from near and far, including interested young men, who stay
outside the house but take part in special elima songs. In all, elima is one of the
happiest occasions for a Pygmy tribe. The Forest People describes puberty initiation
ceremonies for girls and boys. The elima is "the festival celebrating the puberty of
girls" (The Forest People, p. 285). The nkumbi is the villager initiation of boys, to
which the Mbuti choose to send their sons, or are forced to, or some combination of
the two. It is primarily an nkumbi that Turnbull observes in his 1954 visit. For the
villagers, this ceremony not only marks the passage from boyhood to manhood, but
also maintains their connection with the dead, as only initiation will join the
ancestors when they die. The villagers put out considerable expense and effort to
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ensure that the Pygmy boys are initiated along with their own. For the villagers, this
helps maintain their dominance over the Pygmies since they believe that the ritual
binds the Pygmy initiate to the village throughout his life and even after death. The
elima account benefits greatly from Anne Putnam's living in the elima house with
the girls, and providing Turnbull with notes and oral observations. Therefore, this
method is very useful.
Part B (2)
Cultural Anthropology Questions:
What is culture?
How is it learned?
How is it shared? How is it patterned?
How is it adaptive?
How is it symbolic?
How does culture shape and reflect the organization of societies?
How are cultures integrated?
How are cultures and peoples represented in a global context?
To answer each question, Anthropologists employ fieldwork and
comparative, or cross-cultural, methods to study various cultures. Ethnographies
may be produced from intensive study of another culture, usually involving
protracted periods of living among a group. Ethnographic fieldwork generally
involves the investigator assuming the role of participant-observer: gathering data
by conversing and interacting with people in a natural manner and by observing
people's behavior unobstrusively. Ethnologies use specialized monographs in order
to draw comparisons among various cultures.

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Physical Anthropology Questions:
How and why do humans vary biologically, both individually and by group?
What are the patterns of biological variation, adaptation, life history and
development?
What is the source and evolutionary history of these differences at the molecular
level?
What is the interplay between ecology, genetics, and behavior, as well as structure
and function among our closest relatives, the other primates?
What can we learn from the fossil record about the evolutionary history of our
closest relatives as well as ourselves?
What can we learn about our recent history and the spread of populations, through
the analysis of genetics, forensics and cultural remains?

Physical anthropology is concerned with the biological aspects of human
beings. In trying to learn about racial differences, human origins, and evolution, the
physical anthropologist studies fossil remains and observes the behavior of other
primates. This is how they go about in solving thee questions.
These questions are important to answer for several reasons. We must know
and understand other cultures and the people in it. It is important to know how they
play a role in our society and how they are viewed. Not only knowing and
understanding culture is important but also knowing about humans and how we
originated is also important. Knowing our place in nature is very important. The
methods on discovering fossils and gathering information help answer the
questions that us as a human race have. These are the main questions that are asked
because they have the most meaning behind it.
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The science of anthropology is divided into two major disciplines, physical
anthropology and cultural anthropology. Cultural anthropology deals primarily with
the growth of human societies in the world. It is a study of group behavior, the
origins of religion, social customs and conventions, technical developments, and
family relationships. A major subfield of cultural anthropology is linguistics, the
study of the history and structure of language. Linguistics is a valuable tool of the
anthropologist because it enables him to observe a people's system of
communication and to learn the ideas by which they view the world. It also enables
him to collect an oral history of the group being studied. Oral histories are
constructed from a society's poems, songs, myths, proverbs, and folk tales. It also
studies the different cultures of humans and how those cultures are shaped or shape
the world around them. They also focus a lot on the differences between every
person. They examine the various ways in which learned techniques, values, and
beliefs are transmitted from one generation to the next and acted upon in different
situations.
The goal of a cultural anthropologist is to learn about another culture by
collecting data about how the world economy and political practices effect the new
culture that is being studied. Physical anthropology studies humans as a biological
species, often through the study of and comparison with non-human primates.
Physical anthropologists study genetics and physiology in modern
populations as well as in the fossil record in order to learn more about the processes

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of human evolution and adaptation. They also study the observation, measurement,
and explanation of human variability in time and space. This includes both biological
variability and the study of cultural, or learned, behavior among contemporary
human societies. These studies are closely allied with the fields of archeology and
linguistics. Studies range from rigorously scientific approaches, such as research
into the physiology, demography and ecology of hunter-gatherers, to more
humanistic research on topics such as symbolism and ritual behavior.
Two other fields of study connect physical and cultural anthropology:
archaeology and applied anthropology. In excavations, archaeologists find the
remains of ancient buildings, tools, pottery, and other artifacts by which a past
culture may be dated and described. They differentiate by what is done in each field
of work. Physical anthropology is generally classified as a natural science, while
cultural anthropology is considered a social science.





Work Cited Espinal 12
Grinker, Roy Richard. 1994. Houses in the Rainforest. Berkeley: University
of California Press.
Turnbull, Colin M. 1961. The Forest People. New York: Simon and Schuster.
Turnbull, Colin M. 1983. The Mbuti Pygmies: Change and Adaptation. Fort
Worth: Harcourt Brace.
Turnbull, Colin. "FOREST PEOPLE, THE: A STUDY OF THE PYGMIES OF THE
CONGO". Research-Assistance. N.p. n.d. Web. 26 Feb 2012.
<http://citationmachine.net/index2.php?mode=form&nameCnt=1&minimode=isbn
&source=about&reqstyleid=1&isbn=http://www.research-
assistance.com/paper/21235/a_ra_default/forest_people,_the:_a_study_of_the_pyg
mies_of_the_congo_colin_turbull.html>.

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