Question

Which of the following statements about early anthropological investigations is accurate?

a) Early anthropological fieldwork was limited to cultures local to the anthropologists.
b) The first written record of anthropological fieldwork has been dated to 7,000 years ago.
c) Early anthropologists spent large amounts of time with the communities they wrote about.
d) The roots of anthropological fieldwork lie in the globalization of the late 1800s.

Answer 1

The accurate statement about early anthropological investigations is that early anthropologists spent extensive time with the communities they studied, a practice known as fieldwork. Notable examples include Bronislaw Malinowski's work with the Trobriand Islanders.

Step-by-step explanation:

The question concerns the accuracy of statements regarding early anthropological investigations. Among the given options, the correct statement is that early anthropologists spent large amounts of time with the communities they wrote about. This practice, known as fieldwork, often involved living within the society being studied for many months or even years. Early anthropologists would immerse themselves in the local ways of life, which included eating, dressing, speaking, and engaging in cultural activities to gain a comprehensive understanding of the cultures they were researching. A notable example of such dedication to fieldwork is Bronislaw Malinowski's ethnography, 'Argonauts of the Western Pacific', which was a result of nearly two years of research amongst the Trobriand Islanders to understand their complex system of trade and social interactions known as the kula ring.

Early anthropological fieldwork has its roots in the need to understand human cultures and societies, especially those that were quite dissimilar from those of the Western anthropologists conducting the research. The work of early anthropologists like Malinowski played an essential role in forming the basis of modern anthropological methods.