Example OF Anthropology: Reflection Paper Essay

One of the most important topics that deserve to be researched upon is the “troubles talk” or “laments”. As pointed out by James M Wilce in his ethnography, laments are becoming less and less common and are in the danger of disappearing from the global scene as a medium of communication.

About the topic

Laments across the globe are increasingly getting restricted to a minority of the population. Laments or eloquence in trouble was a common practice in many areas of the world, where people used to quell their sorrow by getting vocal about their sufferings. This practice is facing social isolation among the modern literate society in the wake of changing social conditions and the perception about lamenting as an irrational exercise. As pointed out by James M Wilce, language imparts a greater meaning to the social and cultural practices.

Research Process

A multi-pronged approach- a combination of participant observation and naturally occurring conversations should be adopted for researching on the “troubles talk” or “laments”. Since the laments are a phenomenon mostly found in the remotely located minority societies, communicating with the cross section of the people can be a challenging exercise. One of the most effective ways of study is the participant observation, where linguistic anthropologists have to live along with the community in focus for days or months and get familiarized with the local language and culture. The next stage of the research is the naturally occurring conversations, where the researcher can mingle with the community in focus by engaging with a one on one conversation and making the context as natural as possible. By adopting these methodologies, the useful data for the research can be collected.

Works Cited

Wilce, James M. Academia.edu. December 2006. Website. 11 January 2015. <http://www.academia.edu/445611/Magical_Laments_and_Anthropological_Reflections_The_Production_and_Circulation_of_Anthropological_Text_as_Ritual_Activity>.