Research Strengths and Weaknesses, Grand Valley Dani Research

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In Karl Heiders book, “Grand Valley Dani; Peaceful Warriors, we read about an anthropologists quest for knowledge about the culture of the Dani people living in the Grand Valley. Header tells about his methods of research, his actions, his strengths of understanding and his weaknesses, and the difficulties he has faced during this study, in order for us, the reader, to understand and appreciate the Dani culture and how fascinating his study. The book begins by showing us about his entry in the Dani territory. He explains upon their arrival, how they were greeted by an army of men with spears and bows and arrows. The Dani were unsure of the new arrivals to their territory, and welcomed them with caution. They were not the type of people to be curious about others and others culture or way of life. They were just beginning to develop their own independent power and were unsure what to expect from the new arrivals. In order for Heider to get to know the people, and earn their trust, he made camp in their neighbourhood, but was there only long enough to get acquainted with the area, and make camp, and then they returned home. He was not there long enough to begin any kind of research, or to develop any trust. When he returned one month later, he asked about the Dani language, and learned that it was a very complex language, and had no grammatical structure. He was unable to learn the true Dani language due to a lack of written grammar. The Dani spoke to him eventually in another form of Language they had broken down into simpler form, (Police talk), but found that due to the complexity of the language, would never fully understand or speak the true language. With their arrival and the presence of the video cameras, they drew attention to the area, and the Dutch missionaries felt they must set up a police port to monitor the area. This eventually

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