OVERVIEW: THE RESEARCH PROJECT AND THE RESEARCH REPORT
THE RESEARCH PROJECT
Conducting Your Research
To carry out your research project, you will need to select a cultural group for study that is foreign to you, and then seek out information on the cultural group’s key social institutions. Your study will focus on the culture as it exists now or within the past few decades. In your study, you will focus on gathering information on the following institutions which are found in every viable culture:
1. The Marriage, Family and Kinship System
2. The Economic System
3. The Educational System
4. The System of Power, Politics, and Government
5. The Religious System
6. The System of Health Care
To obtain information on these cultural institutions, you will identify and interview a Key Informant (or Key Informants) who are familiar with the culture you are studying and are acquainted with its key institutions.
Conducting Your Research
To carry out your research project, you will interview your Key Informant/s in an effort to gather information about the following key institutions:
I. Marriage, Family and Kinship
Questions you might ask related to marriage, family and kinship include the following:
· What are the social conventions and practices related to dating, courtship, and mate selection in the culture?
· Are there rules restricting dating and courtship to individuals at or over a certain age?
· Are race and ethnicity considered important in dating and courtship?
· Are marriages arranged, or do people chose their own mates and marry for love?
· At what age do people marry?
· Can people marry outside their race or ethnic group?
· Are homosexual marriages legal and acceptable?
· What roles do husbands and wives (or spouses) play in marriage?
· How are parenting responsibilities managed?
· How are lines of familial relationship drawn?
· What types of families (nuclear, extended, single-parent, etc.) are common in the culture?
· Is divorce permitted? How is divorce viewed by people from the cultural group?
· How common is it for individuals to marry a second or third time following divorce?
II. The Economic System
Questions you might ask related to the economic system include the following:
· How do people earn their livelihood in the culture?
· Do they earn money from industrial jobs producing products?
· Do they work providing services (e.g., working in a restaurant, driving a bus, practicing medicine, working at a fitness club, etc.)?
· Do they engage in farming or fishing?
· Do they engage in hunting or food gathering?
· What tools and technologies (e.g., computers, hand axes, drones, spears, etc.) are available and in use in their work?
· Is the economic system an open-market, global, capitalistic system, a socialistic system, etc.?
III. The System of Education
Questions you might ask related to the educational system include the following:
· What do children learn and need to learn in order to grow up and become productive members of society?
· How is education delivered?
· Do young people attend formal schools? If so, for how many years?
· Is access to education open to all people or limited to particular individuals or groups?
· Are males and females educated differently within the culture? If so, how does education vary according to a child’s gender?
· Is education provided for adults? If so, what types of adult education are available?
IV. The System of Politics and Government
Questions you might ask related to the political and governmental system include the following:
· Who is afforded power in the culture? Is there a president, a prime minister, a major, a city council, a police force, etc.?
· Does political power reside in the hands of men (i.e., patriarchy), in the hands of women (i.e., matriarchy), or is the system of power egalitarian?
· What characteristics are valued in leaders?
· How is power acquired and passed on to others?
· What type of political system is in place? Is it a democratic system, a parliamentary system, a monarchy, a dictatorship, etc.?
V. The Religious System
Questions you might ask related to the religious system include the following:
· What religion(s) is/are practiced/represented in the culture?
· How important is religion in the lives of people of the culture?
· What specific churches, temples, mosques, or other places of worship exist in the culture?
· What core values are taught by religious groups/organizations in the culture.
VI. The Healthcare System
Questions you might ask related to the system of Healthcare include the following:
· What kinds of illness or injury have been seen in the cultural group’s population?
· What do people do when they are ill or injured? Are health care practitioners (e.g., doctors, shamen, nurses, clinics, hospitals, etc.) available to treat the injured and the ill?
· Are methods available that enable people to prevent illness and injury?
After you have gathered information on each of the six key institutions in the culture you are studying,
THE RESEARCH REPORT
Writing Your Research Report
The Research Report that you write describing your research should include the following sections/areas of discussion.
I. Introduction
In this section, you will introduce the cultural group you chose to study and provide some basic descriptive information about the culture such as its name, location, climate, general population size, or other distinctive features (e.g., prominent architecture, interesting landmarks, etc.). If you are reporting on a culture that existed in the past, indicate the time frame for your study (e.g., twenty years ago, or two hundred years ago, or two thousand years ago). Your goal in the Introduction is to broadly frame the culture for the reader. Is it pleasant, interesting, or less inviting?
In your Introduction, you should also indicate that the information that you gathered in your study was derived through interviewing a Key Informant, a person who knows the culture and its various institutions well. You don’t have to reveal the name of the informant, but you should explain how the Informant developed a knowledge of the culture and was therefore a trustworthy source of information on the culture.
After introducing the culture you selected for study and the Key Informant you chose to interview, move on to focus on the information you gathered related to each of the culture’s key institutions, as follows:
II. Marriage, Family and Kinship
III. The Economic System
IV. The System of Education
V. The System of Government, Power, and Politics
VI. The System of Religion
VII. The Healthcare System
VIII. Summary
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