Sociocultural Ethnographic Research

After considering the multiple contemporary societal concerns in our world today, many potential research topics come to mind. However, even though each may have equal value of concern, it is fairly difficult to relate many of them to my chosen major of anthropology. According to the American Anthropology Association (2016), “Anthropology is the study of humans, past and present. To understand the full sweep and complexity of cultures across all of human history, anthropology draws and builds upon knowledge from the social and biological sciences as well as the humanities and physical sciences” (homepage). Therefore, I have decided to approach a subject related more toward sociocultural anthropology. One topic would be more concerned with health.

Once this decision is firm (and approved by our instructor), I will determine which specific areas of this topic to research. This will help narrow the subject matter, so I will be able to discuss specifics and avoid the vagueness that can occur if a research topic is too broad. I will decide on specific areas by creating a list of potential subtopics. Under each specific subtopic, I will create a list of why society should be specifically concerned with the specific subtopic and the impact on society if the specific issue is ignored. Next, I will take a look in the Ashford library and list, under each subtopic, whether or not there are at least ten reliable scholarly references on the specific subtopic. I obviously would not use that many for each subtopic, but this will give me an idea of whether or not there are sufficient resources available to me to conduct my research. Once these lists are complete, then I can make a decision of roughly three to five subtopics to address under the main topic. This will dramatically narrow my research topic to a precisely defined social issue. The chosen subtopics can then be placed on a word document, with the relevant lists below them. Once that step is complete, I now have the basic outline for my research paper. Although there are many ways to formulate the preliminary steps in a research paper, a close friend taught

These types of references build and establish credibility for your research. Otherwise, the paper loses credibility. In cyberspace, there is a plethora of information to be found. However, it is not always reliable or credible. Additionally, using scholarly references provides the proof, through expert testimonies and expert research, that an issue is indeed a credible issue worthy of research, and in this instance, that the issue is a contemporary societal concern, as well as revealing why it is a concern to