Gathering and Analysis of Data by Anthropologists

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The Gathering and Analysis of Data Used by Anthropologists Cultural Anthropology 101 03/29/2011 In this paper I will discuss the 2 major ways anthropologists gather data. While anthropologists gather data they use many different methods to do so. I will discuss 7 of those methods. I will also look at how an anthropologist analyzes and looks at the data they have collected. First, let’s talk about the 2 major ways an anthropologist gathers data. This data collection is done either deductively or inductively. A deductive approach means the anthropologist has a hypothesis they are testing. An inductive approach means they have no hypothesis. However, deductive research often has a lot of data collected and it is called quantitative data. An inductive research has smaller amounts of data and that is referred to as qualitative data. Quantitative data is more likely to be pursued than qualitative data. Keep in mind an anthropologist is usually studying that culture for a reason and has a hypothesis to test. Usually they have been funded by a company who wants that hypothesis tested. This scenario has been cause over much debate in the recent past. Therefore, in 2010 the AIATSIS released its’ finalized revision of the Guidelines for Ethical Research in Indigenous Studies. The AIATSIS worked very hard to protect the Indigenous people and their rights during a study. These are guidelines for the anthropologist in the ways they can take, store and access their data collected. It also gives guidelines for the culture being studied and allows that culture the right to access or deny any data the anthropologist has collected. In order to do a deductive or inductive research an anthropologist must have methods in order to properly collect the data. Although there are many methods, I would like talk about 7 major

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