Ethnography and Assessment:Teaching Anthropological

Approaches in Intelligence Analysis

6th Annual IAFIE Conference

Steven StrangRoyal Canadian Mounted Policesteve.strang@rcmp-grc.gc.ca

What Is Anthropology

• Physical Anthropology• Cultural Anthropology /

Ethnology / Ethnography

• Methods of data collection

• Approaches to analysis

Culture?

• Opera• Ballet• Painting• Sculpture• Music• Theatre

• Economic structures• Customary behaviour• Conflict management• Political behaviour• Cosmology• Kinship terms• Marriage patterns• Religious practices• Symbolic markers

Anthropology and Intelligence

• Analytic – eg: The Chrysanthemum And The Sword

• Operational – eg: Cultural Terrain Teams

Anthropological Approaches

• Collection– Participant Observation

• Analysis– Objectivity– Emic and Etic

understandings– Cultural Relativism

The Grammar and Vocabulary of Cultures

• Vocabulary = the specific things people do

• Grammar = the rules for the things they do, the code of appropriate behavior

Subculture attitudes to external society: an example

• Accepted as necessary, usefulness recognized:– Work, health care

• Accepted as inevitable, usefulness doubted:– Education beyond elementary school

• Welcomed on highly selective basis:– Consumer goods, mass media entertainment

• Viewed with suspicion and curiosity, but mostly ignored:– Social services, welfare agencies

• Viewed with hostility, considered exploitative:– Law, police, government

Group Dynamics

• Fusion and fission • Kinship and Sodalities• Tribes and Clans• Feuds and alliances• Adaptation• Leadership models

– Band leader, headman, or chief

Leadership Models

Band Leader – personal respect & longer membership in small unstable group. Situational. Persuasion & example.

Headman – more likely to be lineage-based, increased role in dispute resolution.

Chief – lineage-based, able to give orders & establish rules.

The larger the group, the greater the need for formal hierarchies, internal rules, and specialization

Some Ethnographic Elements in Analyses

• Explicit and implicit ethical rules on behaviour, including target selection

• Distribution of power and influence

• Boundaries of membership

Some More Ethnographic Elements in Intelligence Analyses

What defines the group Nature and extent of internal divisions Motivators and inhibitors of individual conduct Current pressures and stresses Current changes underway in group culture Cosmology - beliefs and values Attitude to outsiders Taboos

Challenges

• Mirror imaging• Subjective judgment• Biases in collection and

analysis• Gaps in collection and

analysis

Applications Understand the rules they operate by Identify indicators of internal change Understand their vulnerabilities to penetration and

disruption Identify key areas of possible misunderstanding and

misinterpretation Recommend potential tactics and strategies