文化人类学

The core task of this step is to determine the specific fieldwork site and formulate academically valuable research questions based on preliminary observation. Field site selection must balance accessibility, research value, and ethical feasibility; research questions must be specific, focused, and have theoretical dialogue space. Exploratory visits and background data collection lay the foundation for formal fieldwork.

• Screen 2-3 candidate field sites under advisor guidance, evaluate dimensions including research topic fit, entry feasibility, community size and heterogeneity, and finalize 1 main field site
• Conduct 3-5 days of exploratory visits, participate in daily community activities, complete over 20,000 words of preliminary field notes, and extract 3-5 candidate research questions
• Integrate core cultural anthropology theories (cultural relativism, thick description, practice theory), focus research questions into 1 core question and 2-3 sub-questions, write 1500-word preliminary research design

The core task of this step is to successfully enter the field site and build trusting relationships with research subjects, paving the way for subsequent deep participation and interviews. Field entry is a critical step in cultural anthropology research, requiring handling of the insider-outsider dialectic—maintaining sufficient integration to obtain authentic information while preserving necessary distance for analytical objectivity.

• Contact key informants through formal or informal channels, prepare detailed self-introduction and research explanation, gain community recognition with humble attitude, complete initial contact with at least 3 core informants
• Adopt "slow entry" strategy, participate in community activities as observer and learner for first two weeks, write detailed field notes daily (no less than 3000 words/day), record entry process and personal reflections
• Actively participate in community labor or public activities, build mutual trust through practical action, obtain explicit support from at least 1 community authority figure by end of second week, and confirm 5+ interviewees willing to conduct in-depth interviews

This step is the core phase of fieldwork, collecting first-hand ethnographic data through participant observation and in-depth interviews. Participant observation requires long-term immersion in community life, recording details of daily practice; in-depth interviews explore local meaning worlds and subjective experiences through semi-structured dialogue. The two methods complement each other to build thick ethnographic description.

• Conduct no less than 4 weeks of full-time participant observation, covering weekdays and weekends, daily and ritual scenes, write over 3000 words of field notes daily, total notes no less than 250,000 words, using Geertz's thick description method
• Design semi-structured interview guide with 3 core dimensions and 15-20 main questions, conduct in-depth interviews with 15-20 informants, 1-3 sessions per person, 60-90 minutes each, full recording and verbatim transcription totaling no less than 150,000 words
• Collect material culture data (photos, artifacts, documents), build field data archive, code by theme (kinship, economic activity, religious ritual, political organization), form initial coding system

The core task of this step is to conduct systematic coding and theoretical analysis of field data, extracting academically valuable analytical frameworks and core arguments from empirical materials. The coding process follows a "bottom-up" grounded theory approach while maintaining dialogue with existing theories. Theoretical explanation is gradually constructed through three-level coding: open coding, axial coding, and selective coding.

• Use NVivo or Atlas.ti qualitative analysis software for three-level coding of field notes and interview transcripts: open coding generates 50+ initial concepts, axial coding organizes into 10-15 core categories, selective coding extracts 1 core category and storyline
• Select 2-3 core cultural anthropology theories (e.g., Bourdieu's practice theory, Geertz's cultural interpretation, Turner's ritual theory) as dialogue framework, compare and mutually interpret coding results with theory
• Construct ethnographic narrative framework, determine themes and arguments for 3-4 core analytical chapters, write detailed outlines for each chapter, ensuring organic integration of empirical materials and theoretical analysis

The core task of this step is to write the analytical results into a规范 ethnographic research report. Cultural anthropological writing emphasizes "thick description" and "thick narrative," presenting the native perspective while maintaining depth of academic analysis. The report must follow academic writing conventions, including reflexive statement explaining how the researcher's identity and positionality influenced the research process.

• Write according to standard ethnographic structure: introduction (research questions and methods), field site background, 3-4 body analysis chapters, conclusion, references, appendices (interview guide, coding manual), total text no less than 15,000 words
• Incorporate reflexivity throughout writing: explicitly state researcher's positionality, field entry process, relationships with informants, and how these factors influenced data collection and interpretation, write over 1000 words of methodological reflection
• Conduct three rounds of revision: first round adjusts structure and argumentative logic, second polishes language (ensuring ethnographic narrative is vivid yet academically rigorous), third proofreads format and citations, uniformly using Chicago Notes format, no fewer than 30 references