Selecting a projecthow and whyan issue or a culture

1. Selecting a project–how and why?–an issue or a culture or *subculture--
validity--support

2. Funding - government - private - personal - *NGOs - foundations
3. Preparation - equipment - paperwork - approval or permission - licenses -
travel visa - health preparations - recording equipment - advice - language
training?
4. Site selection–who exactly are you going to research? - where will you
stay? - how will you communicate with ‘home’? - get supplies? - where will
you keep your stuff?
5. Rapport–gaining acceptance and cooperation from the research culture -
selecting and evaluating your informants - fitting into local customs
Some Fieldwork Techniques
1. * Participant observation
2. Time allocation study
3. Separating the real from the * cultural ideal - common knowledge
4. Sources for data - kinship - personal life history - texts or oral traditions -
historical documents, both internal and external
5. KEEP REGULAR FIELD NOTES!!!
Dangers of Fieldwork
1. Disease–#1 cause of failed field projects–this works both ways–water–
food–contagion
2. Emotional distress
3. Violence or death–human and animal--injury, attack, infection
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4. Imprisonment, hostage taking
A good rule is to treat the host culture with sensitivity and respect. You are the
alien.
Evolution
* evolution = a change in gene frequencies over time
* speciation = a change in the genome so significant that two or more
populations can no longer interbreed.
race = concept of race in humans is not relevant biologically,, my genes may
be closer to anyone in this classroom than
anyone else,, in the late 19
th
century it was SO important that men spent their
entire careers assigning races to different human populations,
steatopygia
* natural selection = the proven phenomenon that certain * phenotypes ,
representing their genotypes , are preferentially selected for in an
environment and consequently proliferate in excess.
deleterious genes,, = 6 to 10 per person,, sickle cell anemia,, Tay-Sachs,,
blood types,, AIDS survivor without a binding site for the HIV virus, can’t catch
AIDS !! = 'delta 21a' allele Charles Darwin
The Human Biological Classification
Kingdom: animalia
Phylum: chordata
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Sub-phylum: vertebrata
Class: mammalia
Order: primates
Family: hominidae
Genus and species: *homo sapiens (sapiens) ( subspecies)
Beginning about 60 mya the order *Primates became established in the
African tropics.
Beginning about 5.5 mya some became facultatively bipedal. about 4.5 mya
*hominid line split from ape line,, one or more of these was genus homo,,
humans have 23 chromosomes, chimps have 24, (SHOW human
chromosome 2),, chimps and humans have >98% the same DNA,, mice have
about 60% the same DNA as humans
By 200 kya hominids had brains (cranial capacity) of 1100cc
They had the ‘Y5’ cusp pattern and 2:1:2:3 dental formula.
Stereoscopic vision and reduced reliance on smell.
There was a relatively steady increase in brain size and complexity until @40
kya. Broca’s area. Females ceased to have an estrus ‘season’
and became continuously receptive. Significant *sexual dimorphism
disappeared about 1 mya. Many mammals have much larger males than
females, baboons about double,, I am about twice the mass of my wife, but
some wives are bigger than their husbands Males and females interacted
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more frequently, although a division of labor (and activities) persists to today.