1. Home
2. Archive
3. 2014
4. 3/2014
5. HOW ETHNOGRAPHY MAY INSTRUCT BIO¬CULTURAL RESEARCH?

HOW ETHNOGRAPHY MAY INSTRUCT BIO¬CULTURAL RESEARCH?

Peternel Lana (1), Malnar Ana (2), Martinović Klarić Irena (1)

1) Institute for Social Research in Zagreb, Zagreb, Croatia; 2) Institute for Migration and Ethnic Studies, Zagreb, Croatia

Peternel Lana, e-mail: lanapeternel@yahoo.com; Martinović Klarić Irena, e-mail: irena@idi.hr.

Abstract

Conducting bio¬cultural research in anthropology remains to be one of biggest challenges in our discipline. To implement a bio¬cultural synthesis in anthropology it is necessary to select an appropriate theoretical framework for understanding culture that is both ethnographically valid and adequate for operationalization in complex bio¬cultural models. The solution to connecting the culture as an aggregate and collective phenomenon with individual beliefs, behaviour and health outcomes became more feasible with the theoretical and methodological breakthroughs in cognitive anthropology, and in particular, after the development of the theory of cultural consensus. By using the example of the recent pilot study conducted within the framework of the project “Modernity stress, youth and migration” we demonstrate how ethnographic research may be used to direct, optimize and complement the quantitative research based on the integration of demographic, psychological and biomedical data (including anthropometric, physiologic and salivary biomarkers). In this project individual subjective and objective stress outcomes are researched in relation to culture changes associated with modernity in the post¬socialist transitional society. We demonstrate the analytical usefulness of using interviewing and free¬listing as ethnographic techniques for defining variables of interest in domains of everyday life of Croatian youth and the results of the cultural consensus analyses in various everyday life¬domains such as education, employment, family, material goods, leisure time, social support and participation, pre¬migratory potential.

Keywords

biocultural synthesis, ethnography of stress, cognitive anthropology, youth, Croatia

Цит.: Peternel Lana, Malnar Ana, Martinović Klarić Irena HOW ETHNOGRAPHY MAY INSTRUCT BIO¬CULTURAL RESEARCH? // Moscow University Anthropology Bulletin (Vestnik Moskovskogo Universiteta. Seria XXIII. Antropologia), 2014; 3/2014; с. 39-39