Anthropologists at home in North America : methods and issues in the study of one's own society

Book

Anthropologists at home in North America : methods and issues in the study of one's own society / Donald A. Messerschmidt, editor.

Messerschmidt, Donald A. (Donald Alan), 1940- (Added Author).

Summary:

The issue of practising anthropology in one's own society is the focus of this volume of seventeen essays, originally published in 1981. The contributions, written by US and Canadian anthropologists, deal with methods, theories and styles of doing research in North America. Rich and sometimes candid descriptions of the strategies and orienting concepts employed to order the data and the research experience made this book a contribution to both theory and method. Traditionally, the research domains of anthropologists have been societies and cultures other than their own. Research by anthropologists in their own societies received renewed emphasis partly because of a heightened awareness of social problems.

Record details

ISBN: 0521240670
ISBN: 9780521240673
ISBN: 0521284198
ISBN: 9780521284196
Physical Description: x, 310 pages ; 24 cm
Publisher: Cambridge [Cambridgeshire] ; Cambridge University Press, 1981.

Content descriptions

Bibliography, etc. Note:: Includes bibliographical references (pages 281-299) and index.
Formatted Contents Note:: Machine derived contents note: Preface; Part I. Introduction: 1. On anthropology 'at home' Donald A. Messerschmidt; 2. Insider research: an ethnography of a debate John L. Aguilar; Part II. Urban Studies: 3. Unseen community: the natural history of a research project Paul Bohannan; 4. Common sense and science: urban core black observations John L. Gwaltney; 5. Observer participation and consulting: research in urban food cooperatives Richard Zimmer; 6. The masking of social reality: ethnographic fieldwork in the bureaucracy David Serber; Part III. Rural Studies: 7. Longitudinal research in rural North America: the Saskatchewan Cultural Ecology Research Program, 1960-1973 John W. Bennett and Seena Kohl; 8. Social networks and community administration: a comparative study of two mining towns Susan Brandt Graham; 9. The anthropologist as key informant: inside a rural Oregon town Lawrence Hennigh; 10. Neighboring: discovering support systems among Norwegian-American women Agnes M. Aamodt; Part IV. Health Systems: 11. Applied ethnoscience in rural America: New Age health and healing Craig Molgaard and Elizabeth Byerly; 12. Interactive research in a feminist setting: The Vancouver Women's Health Collective Linda Light and Nancy Kleiber; Part V. Education Systems: 13. Constraints in government research: the anthropologist in a rural school district Donald A. Messerschmidt; 14. Many roles, many faces: researching school-community relations in a heterogeneous American urban community R. Timothy Sieber; Part VI. Contract Anthropology: 15. Anthropology under contract: two examples from Alaska Kerry D. Feldman; 16. Talking to an agency: communicating the research findings Ruth M. Houghton; Part VII. Reflections on Anthropology at Home: 17. Home and away: personal contrasts in ethnographic style Harry F. Wolcott; Contributors; Notes; Bibliography; Index.