Data is central to what we do is social
scientists. I think that's the thing that
has always – for me – been the defining
feature of what I do as a social
scientist and in some places I think
people oftentimes think of data is only
being quantitative and social scientists
being people who go out and measure
things quantitatively and test
hypotheses. And while that's certainly
valuable work to do, I think of data is
also being qualitative of any kind of
information and knowledge gathering that
you do out in the world. You know, you
have a question and you need to go out
and talk to people, or map things, or look through the archives and find
some sort of methodically-collected
information and knowledge that will help
you to answer that question. And that's
really the critical thing that we do as
cultural anthropologists and as
anthropologists in general.
