Types

• The leading research methods in anthropology include interviews, ethnohistories, participant observation, or ethnography, and cross-cultural comparisons.
  
  

Interviews

• In-depth interviews, often used in conjunction with other methods such as participant observation allow a researcher to gain a subject's views in a less structured manner than formal questionnaires.
  
  

Ethnohistories

• This research method collects information from historical documents such as letters, journals and official records. Anthropologists often use ethnohistories in combination with other methods such as interviews and observations.
  
  

Ethnography

• A hallmark of anthropology, ethnography or participant observation involves up-close observations of societies in which the researcher participates as a member of the group being observed. This allows the researcher to experience the group's activities as an insider and an outsider.
  
  

Cross-Cultural Comparisons

• This method builds on ethnography, which produces a single case study of a group or culture by comparing and contrasting multiple groups or cultures.
  
  

Benefits

• Anthropological methods allow researchers to collect richly detailed data in a variety of settings, ranging from the commonplace to the exotic and unusual. But they yield mainly qualitative data, which can be difficult and time-consuming to analyze.