通过监狱发现并理解社会--兼谈人类学方法的应用

Discovering and Understanding Society by Studying Prisons--On Application of the Anthropological Methods

鉴于以往监狱研究关注监狱自身偏多,触及社会偏少的现状,有必要强调通过监狱发现并理解社会这个论题。通过监狱发现和理解社会不仅是可能的、必要的,也具有可操作性。其中,掌握人类学的方法是一条可以选择的路径。在研究中,要坚持中立的价值观、整体观,比较的视角、当事人视角与局外人视角交叉使用、内部与外部学者形成必要的合作。

This article focuses on the important role that anthropological methods play in studying prisons.Some researchers were used to studying only prisons without thinking about society,and they even can not discover and understand whole society by studying prisons.The purpose of this article is to explore how to uphold the neutral value,the overall view,the Comparative perspective,the emic-etic perspective,and the necessary cooperation by internal and external scholars in our research.The author’s conclusion is that the scholars who can do research on prisons should deeply understand our society by material evidence from prisons.