RUMSPIL VED YUPNOFLODEN: En eksperimentel metode på et antropologisk feltarbejde

Abstract

Jiirg Wassmann: Space Games at the

Yupno River. An Experimental Method in

Anthropological Fieldwork

The author uses an example from an interdisciplinary

study among the Yupno in New

Guinea to point to the relevance of experiments

in anthropological research on

cognition. It is argued that an experimental

method makes it possible to get information

on the explicit and conscious use of cultural

knowledge individuals employ when they

solve posed problems. The results from the

space games made possible a more detailed

and clear insight in, and description of, the

arrangement and use of the three different

systems for spatial description among the

Yupno. A main point through the article is

that the results from the experiments only

make sense against the background of an extensive

fieldwork which provides a insight

into the ethnographical context necessary for

the analysis.