Russel-Research-Method-in-Anthropology

38 Chapter 2
use them in everyday conversation to tell people what we mean by some term
or phrase. Operational definitions consist of a set of instructions on how to
measure a variable that has been conceptually defined.
Suppose I tell you that ‘‘Alice and Fred just moved to a spacious house.’’
Nice concept. You ask: ‘‘What do you mean by ‘spacious’?’’ and I say: ‘‘You
know, big rooms, high ceilings.’’
If that isn’t enough for you, we’ll have to move from a conceptual definition
of ‘‘spacious’’ to an operational one. We’ll have to agree on what to measure:
Do we count the screened-in porch and the garage or just the interior living
space? Do we count the square footage or the cubic footage? That is, do we
get a measure of the living surface, or some measure of the ‘‘feeling of spaciousness’’
that comes from high ceilings? Do we measure the square footage
of open space before or after the furniture and appliances go in? If we had to
agree on things like this for every concept, ordinary human discourse would
come to a grinding halt.
Science is not ordinary human discourse, however, and this, in my view, is
the most important difference between the humanistic and the scientific (positivistic)
approaches to social science. Humanistic researchers seek to maintain
the essential feel of human discourse. Positivists focus more on specific measurement.
I do not see these two styles as inimical to one another, but as complementary.
To get a feel for how complementary the two styles can be, ask some 50
year olds and some 20 year olds—men and women of both ages—to tell you
how old you have to be in order to be middle aged. You’ll see immediately
how volatile the conceptual definition of ‘‘middle age’’ is. If you ask people
about what it means to ‘‘be middle aged,’’ you’ll get plenty of material for an
interesting paper on the subject. If you want to measure the differences
between men and women and between older and younger people on this variable,
you’ll have to do more than just ask them. Figure 2.3 shows an instrument
for measuring this variable.
1 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 60 65 70 75 80 85 90 95 100
Here is a line that represents age. Obviously, a person 1 year of age is a baby, and a person 100 years of age is old. Put a
mark on the line where you think middle age begins and another mark where you think middle age ends.
Figure 2.3. An instrument for measuring what people think ‘‘middle age’’ means.
Many concepts that we use in anthropology have volatile definitions:
‘‘power,’’ ‘‘social class,’’ ‘‘machismo,’’ ‘‘alienation,’’ ‘‘willingness to
change,’’ and ‘‘fear of retribution.’’ If we are to talk sensibly about such
things, we need clear, intersubjective definitions of them. In other words,