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| Dances with Wolves |
Twenty years ago, I watched Dances With Wolves, a movie that
was starred by Kevin Costner. This movie
tells about John J Dunbar, a U.S. soldier who served on the frontier and had frequent
contact with the Sioux, one of American Indians tribe.
At first, John thought like other American soldiers who saw
Indians as primitive, barbaric and should be abolished. He also saw the Indians
as a group of people who lived with ancient ways. At the border, he was often
faced with a situation when an Indian tried to steal his horse. In order to
solve the problem, he visited the Indian village to start a dialogue with them.
Interestingly, John recorded all his experiences through
personal diaries. Every time he met the Indians, he would write about experience
and made sketches of clothing, weapons, equipment used by some Indians. Late, John
learned the language and some of the rituals, including dances that were often
performed by the Indians and was given the name Dances with Wolves. After
several meetings, he changed his views about the Indians. He no longer saw them
as a barbaric or primitive group. He began to learn the knowledge of the
Indians, including the customs and way of life.
He learned to see the world through an Indian perspective. He
began to ask many questions about why the Indians should be hunted down and
eliminated. He questioned the Indian history, and built a sense of empathy for
them. At the end of the film, he chose to be one of the Sioux Indians. He
played his role as a hero who helped them escape.
I remembered the story in this movie when I read the articles
from Joseph-Marie Degerando, Franz Boas and Bronislaw Malinowski. They are
important figures in the history of ethnography. Their articles describe about the
position of a researcher or ethnographer in a native community. I see a similarity
among them since both rejected the view from the top approach. For them, the society
must be explained with a grass roots view. An ethnographer is someone who
learns from the community and illustrates the knowledge using the values learned
from the community.
I was especially very interested while reading the Joseph-Marie
Degerando. This paper criticizes travel notes made by explorers or researcher
in 1800. At that time, the European people entered a period of enlightenment.
They repeatedly questioned dogmas taught by religion. The industrial revolution
was also on the rise so there was a need for a variety of natural resources to
sustain the industry. Various explorations were conducted in other continents
such as Asia and Africa to gather natural resources.
As a philosopher, Degerando questioned how the scientists conducted
the data collection. He recommended thinking inductively while using data
collection methods. He emphasized the importance of observation, and how the
data should be collected through first-hand, unbiased, holistic, and should
always be confirmed.
The method that was offered by Degerando is a scientific
method, as applied by biologists when they conduct research. However, often a
biologist sees nature as an object to be conquered by the scientific method.
Unlike biologists, Degerando recommended inductive methods to understand
society. He placed people as a subject that should be firstly understood. This
is the reason why he said that the data should always be confirmed. In this
way, human beings are not like objects in biological research. A human being is
a thinking subject, and sees the world with his or her own view.
Degerando contribution is to provide a roadmap for
ethnography. Although Degerando suggestions were not used as a method of data
collection for scholars and traveler of the period, he has recommended some
principles that became a handbook for ethnographic research. These principles
are participant observation, first hand observations, use an emic point of view,
understanding the local meaning, immerse in the host society, learning the
native language etc. Degerando’s idea affects two modern thinkers; Franz Boas
and Malinowski, particularly in terms of the development of ethnographic
research.
Franz Boas is a very important figure in anthropology. He
contributed scientific methodology to the modern anthropological study its scientific
methodology and emphasized the importance of empiricism, that is theories must
be developed only after research and not the other way around. At the time it
was common to base research on preconceived theories, which led to
stereotyping, false generalizations, and racial bias. Boas had previously rigorously
studied natural sciences and adapted their empiricism to anthropology for the
first time.
Boas was also among the first to reject the linear
progression of cultures across the globe. Boas proposed that evolution is based
on adaptations that are unique to their circumstances. As result he contributed
to anthropology the term “cultural relativism” and the idea that each culture
is a product of its own history and circumstances, not by race and environment.
I think the concept of cultural relativism is an important
concept in the study of culture. This concept explains that all people have
different values. A researcher must try to understand the different values
in order to gain a holistic understanding. In research, this concept uses the
emic point of view that puts the researcher as a person who studies the
community from within.
Boas significantly contributed to the development of methodology
in anthropological research, makng extensive survey of variety of cultural
aspects, such as religion, marriage, physical appearance, food, art, and so on.
He emphasized the importance of ethnographic work on site, learning the
language, and use of extensive surveys, which became the minimum standard for later
anthropological studies.
Similar to Boas, Bronislaw Malinowski also developed
ethnography. He conducted field research on the Trobriand Islands for several
years. He stayed with the local community, followed their daily activities, and
learned to understand their way of thinking. In 1922, he wrote a book called Argonauts
of the Western Pacific.
Several years ago, I read this book. The first question that arose
was who were the Argonauts? After reading the book, I got the information that
the Argonauts term is derived from Greek mythology. Argonauts were a group of people
who accompanied Jason to sail and to face danger. Malinowski used this term to
describe people who sailed across the Trobriand islands for trade.
Later Malinowski developed his ideas on fieldwork. In his
writings, he always stressed the importance of experience and living with local
communities. I like Malinowski’s article, entitled Method and Scope of
Anthropological Fieldwork. He wrote a reflection on his experiences in the
Trobriand. He explained that an ethnographer should do fieldwork, living with
local people and build rapport. I also like the idea to reject the use of the
term 'savage' culture because the term is so biased and derogatory.
One of his most important contributions was that he
popularized fieldwork and ethnography. Most anthropologist before him based
their research on structured interviews and did not mix their work with the daily
life of their subjects. In contrast, Malinowski more than any other researcher
before immersed himself in studying the mundane aspects of his subjects’ life.
He based all his work and subsequent revolutionary theories
on participant observation, particularly in his famous studies of the Trobriand
Islanders of New Guinea. The emphasis on fieldwork and immersion in daily life,
as well as other aspects of Malinowski theories, were adopted by the American
School of Anthropology, particularly through the work of Franz Boas.
In the future, I hope to follow in
this ethnographic tradition by continuing similar fieldwork in my own country.
Athens, January 22,
2013
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