Research Methods in Anthropology: Qualitative and Quantitative Approaches

Citation

Bernard, H. R., & Wutich, A. (2026). Research Methods in Anthropology: Qualitative and Quantitative Approaches (7th ed.). Bloomsbury Academic.

Chapter Summary

The seventh edition has twenty-five chapters, five appendixes, references and an index, and runs to about 744 pages. The publisher describes a "tripart organization" covering the three components of research: research design, data collection and data analysis. The chapter titles fall naturally into those three groups, and the summaries below follow the table of contents. The publisher does not say which chapters belong to which part.

Chapters 1–8: Foundations, Design and Sampling

• Chapter 1: Anthropology and the Social Sciences and Chapter 2: The Language of Social Research introduce the field and its vocabulary. The publisher notes that boldfaced key terms introduce students to the vocabulary of social research.
• Chapter 3: Preparing for Research and Chapter 4: Research Design cover the planning stage. The edition adds a new discussion of "the art of proposal writing".
• Chapter 5: Experiments and Experimental Thinking takes up experiments and experimental thinking.
• Chapter 6: Ethics and the Conduct of Anthropology is new in this edition and, per the publisher, walks students through the challenges anthropologists face in research and how to deal with them.
• Chapter 7: Probability Sampling and Chapter 8: Nonprobability Sampling set out the two families of sampling.

Chapters 9–16: Collecting Data

• Chapter 9: Interviewing and Focus Groups and Chapter 10: Questionnaires cover talk-based and survey instruments.
• Chapter 11: Collecting Cultural Domain Data and Chapter 12: Collecting Social Network Data are the two chapters the publisher says are expanded in this edition, offering practical skills for both cutting-edge and classic methods.
• Chapter 13: Scales and Scaling covers scales and scaling.
• Chapter 14: Participant Observation, Chapter 15: Field Notes and Data Management and Chapter 16: Direct Observation form the observational core of the book.

Chapters 17–25: Analysis and Writing

• Chapter 17: Introduction to Data Analysis opens the final group.
• Chapter 18: Analyzing Cultural Domain Data and Chapter 19: Analyzing Network Data mirror Chapters 11 and 12.
• Chapters 20–22 form a three-chapter treatment of text: Analyzing Text I (theme coding, grounded theory, content analysis), Analyzing Text II (discourse analysis) and Text Analysis III (analytic logic).
• Chapter 23: Univariate and Bivariate Analysis and Chapter 24: Multivariate Analysis supply the statistical chapters.
• Chapter 25: On Writing Up is new and, according to the publisher, introduces the basics of getting articles published in peer-reviewed journals.

The appendixes consist of four statistical tables (areas under a normal curve, Student's t, chi-square, and the F table at the 0.05 level) and Appendix E, "Resources for Fieldworkers", which the publisher describes as a collection of student aids for the code of ethics, statistics packages, research journals and area files.

Key Concepts

Design and sampling (Chapters 1–8)

• Research design and proposal writing: planning a project and writing persuasively about it.
• Experiments and experimental thinking: Chapter 5.
• Research ethics: the new Chapter 6.
• Probability and nonprobability sampling: Chapters 7–8.

Data collection (Chapters 9–16)

• Interviewing, focus groups and questionnaires: Chapters 9–10.
• Cultural domain data and social network data: Chapters 11–12.
• Participant observation, field notes and direct observation: Chapters 14–16.

Analysis and writing (Chapters 17–25)

• Theme coding, grounded theory, content analysis and discourse analysis: Chapters 20–21.
• Univariate, bivariate and multivariate analysis: Chapters 23–24.
• Writing for peer-reviewed publication: Chapter 25.

Critical Analysis

Strengths

• Breadth in one volume. The publisher calls the book a survey of qualitative and quantitative methods, and the contents back this up: interviewing, observation, sampling theory, network and domain data, text analysis and multivariate statistics all have their own chapters.
• A style meant to be approachable. The publisher describes Bernard's "unmistakable conversational style", with key terms in boldface and boxes that expand on ideas in the text.
• Practical supports. The appendix on resources for fieldworkers and the companion website, which includes an instructor guide with a test bank written by the authors (30 multiple-choice, 10 open-ended and 10 discussion questions per chapter), make it usable as a course text.
• Attention to current practice. The new chapters on ethics and on writing up, the new discussion of proposal writing and the expanded chapters on cultural domain and network data are the seventh edition's stated additions.

Limitations

• Length and scope. At about 744 pages with 25 chapters, it is more than most courses can cover in a term, so instructors and students must select chapters.
• One chapter per method. Because the book surveys the whole research process, most individual methods, such as interviewing (together with focus groups), questionnaires and participant observation, get a single chapter each; text analysis, with three chapters, is the exception. Readers who want a full treatment of one method, such as ethnographic writing or fieldnote practice, will need a specialist book.
• A statistics component. Chapters 23–24 and Appendixes A–D mean the book includes statistical work; students from a purely qualitative background should allow time for it.

Where It Fits in the Course

This is the broadest methods text on the list, a general reference rather than a guide to one way of doing fieldwork. The more focused books complement it: Madden's Being Ethnographic treats fieldwork as a way of being in the world as well as a set of techniques, and Hammersley and Atkinson's Ethnography: Principles in Practice presents ethnography as a reflexive process; Fetterman's Ethnography: Step-by-Step walks through a project stage by stage; and Emerson, Fretz and Shaw's Writing Ethnographic Fieldnotes concentrates on recording and writing. Bernard and Wutich are the place to turn when a project needs sampling, structured data collection or statistics alongside ethnography.

Writing Culture examines how ethnographic authority is produced through writing, while this textbook's contents concentrate on procedure from design to analysis, so the two make a useful pairing.

How to Use This Book

It suits students who have taken an introductory anthropology or social science course and are about to design a research project. A practical plan is to read Chapters 1–4 and 6 first, then choose the collection chapters that match the project (9, 14 and 15 for an interview-and-observation study; 10 and 13 for a survey; 11 and 12 for systematic data on domains or networks), then read the matching analysis chapters. The statistics chapters can be left until needed.

Use Chapter 25 and the new proposal-writing discussion when moving to the writing stage, and Appendix E as a finding aid for further reading and tools. A methods course can follow the order of the chapters; an independent reader should pick a path through them.