Analysis

Abstract

Many researchers find that the end of the fieldwork phase of the project is not the end of their questions about how to go about completing the study. The research project should be thought of as something that includes both the analysis of the information gathered during fieldwork and a consideration of its theoretical implications (the subjects of this chapter and chapter 9). What good is all of this evidence if it sits on a shelf (or in a drawer) collecting dust? The scholar must analyze the material and eventually turn it into various kinds of anthropological products if he or she is going to successfully complete the work. In this chapter, we concentrate on how to analyze the information that was gathered during field-work, including both preliminary and secondary forms of analysis and the issue of what to do when we find contradictions within a pattern itself.