Summer Institutes for Cross-Cultural Anthropological Research

Human Relations Area Files, New Haven CT

Investigators

Abstract

This award supports the training and professional development of scientists is anthropological science by supporting the Summer Institutes for Cross-Cultural Anthropological Research. These institutes will train faculty, researchers, and advanced graduate students in the theory and state-of-the art methods for conducting regional and worldwide comparative research so that these methods can be incorporated into courses and cross-cultural research using anthropological data. Cross-cultural findings derived from anthropological data are critical to many social sciences (e.g., psychology, sociology, economics, political science), particularly when testing the generalizability of important theories for policy. Anthropology departments differ in their ability to offer training in appropriate and modern quantitative methods for cross-cultural analysis, and these institutes fill a critical gap in training for a new generation of researchers. To expand the training to a wider circle of faculty, post-docs, and students, institute instructors will prepare learning modules (presentations, datasets, exercises) that will be made available online in an open-access format at the conclusion of the institutes. The institutes consist of instruction that covers all phases of regional and worldwide comparisons from project conception through statistical analysis. Instructors in the institute will teach strategies consistent with scientific principles, including selecting samples that adequately represent a population, which is especially important for answering descriptive questions, deriving testable hypotheses from specified theoretical principles, designing appropriate operational measures from theoretical constructs, taking steps to minimize random and systematic error, deploying appropriate analysis strategies, and exercising appropriate caution in the nature of conclusions that can be drawn. Each participant will design and execute a pilot project during their time at an institute. Prior to the experience, two types of preparatory materials will be produced. First, to facilitate using data from different cross-cultural samples, a concordance between commonly used cross-cultural samples will be expanded, upgraded, and put into an online open-access format. Second, instructors will prepare statistical materials so that accepted participants can brush up on basic statistics and learn the rudiments of R (an open-source statistical environment) prior to attendance. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.