Participant Observation and Objectivity in Anthropology

• Julie Zahle ^[1]
  1. [1] University of Copenhagen

     University of Copenhagen

     Dinamarca

     
• Localización: New challenges to philosophy of science / coord. por Hanne Andersen, Dennis Dieks, Wenceslao J. González Fernández, Thomas Uebel, Gregory Wheeler, 2013, ISBN 978-94-007-5844-5, págs. 365-376
• Idioma: inglés
• Texto completo no disponible (Saber más ...)
• Resumen

  • In this paper, I examine the early history of discussions of participant observation and objectivity in anthropology. The discussions resolve around the question of whether participant observation is a reliable method for obtaining data that may serve as the basis for true accounts of native ways of life. I show how Malinowski in 1922 introduced participant observation as a straightforwardly reliable method and then discuss how – and why – most of the discussants in the 1940s and 1950s maintained that the method is reliable only if the researcher takes a whole number of precautionary measures.