This document contains a complete overview of the teaching material of the first-year-course of culture and comparison, at the University of Leiden. The summary is in English because the course is taught in English. The document is a combination of my own notes of the lectures, the mandatory litera...
Culture and Comparison: Exam overview
Part 1: comparison in place
Lecture 1: philosophy of science
Comparative methods = a research method where people compare. However, in social and cultural
anthropology it is constrained by limitations.
Three kinds of comparative method
1. Global sample comparison
2. Controlled comparison
3. Illustrative comparison
Cultural realism vs. ethnocentrism
There are different views of people and anthropologist to view different cultures:
Ethnocentrism = put societies in hierarchy / you compare another culture with your own, but in a
form with superiority.
Cultural realism = look at differences without putting it in hierarchy.
Sometimes ethnocentrism is clear, sometimes it is not so clear.
Example: German research among covid. He set up a survey to do that in different countries. But one
of the question was, how many people do you chat with.
But in Brazil it was problematic because people chat with so many people on the street and local.
So the question had a German social life into the background. In the Brazilian context will not work,
you need a different question.
Epistemology = thinking about how to do science, sociology and anthropology. There are different
ways of thinking In this epistemology. One way of epistemology is positivism.
Positivism vs objectivity
There are different views on how to do good research and present arguments academically:
Objectivity:
There are facts that do not depend on our position as researcher. Results will be the same.
Science: present the fact as accurate as possible
Verification: check if our representation correspondents with reality. Are all ravens black? Then we
see ALL ravens. That is not possible
Falsification
Representation is valid until one finds a counter example. More realistic than verification?
, Positivism:
= the philosophy of the natural sciences, holding out that reality is concrete and can be learned about
using standardised observation techniques such as experiments
Deduction: top-down from statement to conclusion
- all humans are mortal
- Socrates is a human being
- therefore, Socrates is mortal
It is on an abstract level.
Emphasis is not on collecting information but on reasoning (making a logical argument)
Induction: Bottom-up from observation to theory
Observation: this far, all my anthro lecture where interesting
Theory: very likely, all lectures are interesting
Falsification: Today I had such a boring lecture
New theory is needed
Induction: more emphasis on collecting information
Problems with positivism
Our observations are influenced by our culture and the researchers’ biography background/context
(Thomas Kuhn: paradigm shift) = if you look at a specific things, you will not notice other things what
are also happening at the same time. But if you stop focussing, you look at things that were not seen
before. (example: video of the monkey while counting balls)
1. There is no way to study other objectively. We always have our own language and
background.
2. These categories are never ‘natural’ but do seem self-evident
3. There is always our interpretation
Hermeneutic circle
= Science is not about reaching objectivity but about constantly re-interpreting.
Not about reaching the ultimate truth, but always look at the interpreting.
Striving towards objectivity?
- For example by recording what people say as accurate as possible
Reflexivity: be conscious about who we are and our background:
- We make and use categories, we cannot always understand the context of what people do or say.
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