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How do Anthropologists Observe the Society?

人類學家如何進行社會觀察？

Written by Pin-Yi Li ( 作者 : 李品儀 )

Author’s biography: Pin-Yi Li is currently a 1st-year anthropology graduate student at National Taiwan University and served as a teacher assistant for a cultural anthropology class. Her research interests include food and culture, museum and cultural heritage studies, and Taiwanese cultural history. Besides research and teaching, she is working for the Center for Teaching and Learning Development (CTLD) in NTU to enhance the development of Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs).

作者簡介 : 李品儀目前為台灣大學人類學研究所一年級碩士生與大學部文化人類學的教學助理。她的研究興趣包含飲食與文化、博物館與文化遺產研究、和台灣文化史。在研究與教學之餘，她在台大教學發展中心工作、希望貢獻於「大規模開放在線課程」的發展。

Translated by Carol Lai ( 翻譯 : 賴翊瑄 )

Anthropologists understand and observe the society via scientific methods. They mainly conduct their research by participant observation and ethnography (among other methodologies).

人類學家運用科學的方法來理解和觀察社會，主要藉由參與觀察與民族誌田野 (ethnography) 等方法來進行研究。

Anthropologists are usually committed to conduct long-term research on the society. They spend lots of time with their observed communities, attempting to establish a relatively complete and in-depth exploration and explanation. On choosing observed subjects and studied issues, they often focus on the universality and the uniqueness of certain cultures, and then view the world via comparing different cultures.

人類學家對於社會的研究往往是長期的，透過長時間與所觀察的社群相處，試圖建立較完整且深入的全貌觀圖像。在觀察對象與課題的選擇方面，多半會著眼於文化的普同性與獨特性，透過文化的比較觀點看待世界。

Anthropologists always concentrate on “human beings” while identifying, analyzing, and addressing their social concerns. They put much emphasis on the social positions, the viewpoints and the agency of individuals. Studies related to human societies in the past belong to archaeology; whereas modern human activities are the core concerns among cultural anthropologists.

人類學家對於社會的主要關懷總是聚焦在「人」身上，十分重視人在社會中的位置、觀點和能動性(agency)，對於古代人類社會的研究屬於考古學的範疇，而對於現生人群的關注則是文化人類學者的核心關注。

立足曉明 放眼國際 :國際教育專刊

Read Bi-lingually, Think Globally:

Essays on Internationalizing Education

2015 年 06 月 26 日第 8期

Issue 8: June 26, 2015

一門認識人類的學問 ?

Knowledge for Understanding Humans?

編譯：賴翊瑄 (Chief Editor: Carol Lai)

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In general, a society can be regarded

as important space for

human survival.

Any types of life developed

in this space can be studied

by anthropologists.

基本上，社會可以被視為人們生存的重要空間，在這個空間上所構築出的各種生活型態都可以是被研究的主題。 Anthropologis ts in the past of ten went in to n o n - We s t e r n a b o r i g i n a l t r i b e s a n d c o n d u c t e d a var ie ty of observat ions of the i r socia l l ives .

過去的人類學家經常進入非西方的原住民部落中進行社會生活型態的各種觀察。

Recently, anthropologists also pay attention to industrial cities in Western societies—they study social movements, industries, museums, and even virtual communities. Additionally, they study the impacts of modernization (such as capitalism) on primitive tribes.

如今，人類學家也進行西方工業化都市的種種研究，也包含社會運動、產業、博物館甚至是網路社群等面向，同時也留意資本主義等現代化發展對於原始部落的影響。

P e r h a p s w e c a n s a y t h a t anthropologists look for ideas in daily life, view this world of varieties in the eye of anthropologists, and explain human diversity in more systemic, organized, interesting, and meaningful manners.

我們或許可以這麼說，人類學家的工作往往就是在我們的生活中找尋靈感，透過人類學的眼鏡望向萬千的世界，賦予人類多樣性更多有系統、有組織甚至是充滿趣味與意義的理解。

Anthropology is also close to other social sciences—such as sociology, psychology, linguistics, political science, economics, law, and other fields. It is not unusual to find researchers from these fields often cooperate with other.

人類學同時也與其他社會學科關係密切，像是：社會學、心理學、語言學、政治學、經濟學、法學等學科，彼此間常常有著合作的關係，也容易結合。

The features of anthropology are: anthropologists tend to have conversation with scholars of other fields; they are eager to learn new things and reflect on themselves; they observe the society from a relatively close distance. Cultivating such sensitivity depends on respect, tolerance, and appreciation of diverse cultures.

人類學的學科特質在於容易與其他學科對話， 並 且 有 著 高 度 的 學 習 力 和 反 思 能 力， 對於 社 會 採 取 相 對 近 距 離 的 觀 測， 這 種 敏 銳 度仰 賴 著 對 於 多 元 文 化 的 尊 重、 包 容 與 欣 賞。

Footnotes on pictures:

1. The famous American anthropologist, Margaret Mead (1901-78), urged all anthropolosits to observe cultures with less bias.

2. Anthropologists who choose ethnography as their research approach need to observe and partcipate in selected socieites with a high level of immersion.

3. Archaeological sites are where still-hidden human stories can be digged out.

4. Watching the English: The Hidden Rules of English Behaviour (written by Kate Fox) details the modern English character under the anthropological microscope. A hilarious must-read!

5. Key wors in biological/phyiscal anthropology.6. Key words in linguistic anthropology.

圖片說明 :

1. 著名的美國人類學家瑪格麗特 ˙ 米德告誡人類學家們要用越少的偏見觀察每個異文化。© http://goo.gl/iv4MgS

2. 採用民族誌為研究方法的人類學家，必須非常深入地觀察和融入一個社會。© http://goo.gl/9AUAxt

3. 考古遺址是許多尚未為人知的故事被挖掘出來的起點。© http://goo.gl/2RmIwE

4. 芙克絲在 << 瞧這些英國佬 :英格蘭人的人類學田 野報告 >> 中，以人類學顯微鏡觀察現代英格蘭人的民族性格。強力推薦這本充滿笑點的書 ! © http://goo.gl/18Ke3X

5. 體質 /生物人類學的關鍵字。© http://goo.gl/aLBY1x6. 語言人類學的關鍵字。© https://goo.gl/LAHLCU

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