Re: Boas' informants

Mujin presented the following explanation :
In article <MPG.1fe3fda81152652798974c@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>, umwinkl0@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx says...
In article <RPmeh.9605$xC4.1110@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>, noone@yahoo.
com says...
Does anyone have a reference where I can find Boas's concept
of the ideal informant for ethnographic researchers?

This is kind of a vague question. Can you expand? I'm not sure what you mean by "ideal informant" - surely "informed native" encapsulates it, but that's hardly anything unique to Boas. Were you looking for something in particular?



To expand, the main difference between Boas and other ethnographers of the period was that Boas took an approach to ethnography that was rather like natural history. That is, he travelled to the community to observe, and he spoke to as many individuals as possible. Previously, the pattern was to rely on accounts of European travellers or intensive interviews with one or two "natives" from the community. So in a sense Boas's "ideal informant" was "as many as possible."

Anyway, I looked on my office shelf this morning and found a few articles you might find useful. A quick web search shows them available online, though they should be available in your library anyway. You can always ask for document delivery if not. If these papers aren't what you're looking for, I'm sure there's something in the bibliographies that will be of use to you!

Briggs, C & R.Baumann (1999) "The Foundation of All Future Researches: Franz Boas, George Hunt, Native American Texts, and the Construction of Modernity" American Quarterly 51.3 479-528 http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/american_quarterly/v051/51.3briggs.html

Urry, James (1972) "Notes and Queries on Anthropology and the Development of Field Methods in British Anthropology, 1870-1920" Proceedings of the Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland, No. 1972, pp. 45-57. Stable URL: http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0080-4169%281972%290%3A1972%3C45%3A
%22AQOAA%3E2.0.CO%3B2-1 (watch the wrap)

I thought this next one was quite an interesting article, though a little far from my own theoretical standpoint, and it discusses the way Boas went about things in some detail:

Bunzl, M (2004) "Boas, Foucault and the Native Anthropologist: Notes towards a Neo-Boasian Anthropology" American Anthropologist 106(3)435-442
http://www.anthro.uci.edu/html/CTE260/Bunzl.pdf

I know the first article (excellent), but not the latter two.
Thanks for the citations!

To clarify, I wondered if there was a particular type of native
person Boas thought was most useful. Underhill talks about finding
an average or at least not exceptional person in her Papago Woman.
I wondered if Boas taught her that a sort of average native person
was ideal.

Thanks again.

S.


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Relevant Pages

  • Re: Boas informants
    ... the main difference between Boas and other ethnographers ... travellers or intensive interviews with one or two "natives" from ... Development of Field Methods in British Anthropology, ... in some of Boaz's early ethnography. ...
    (sci.anthropology)
  • Re: Boas informants
    ... To expand, the main difference between Boas and other ethnographers ... Development of Field Methods in British Anthropology, ...
    (sci.anthropology)