"Rimrock"Rivisited: An Ethnographic Study of the Homesteader Community of Fence Lake, New Mexico
Year: 2001
Type: article
Abstract: From 1949From until 1955, a large grouP of researchers from the Laborato21y of Socinl Relations of Harvard University, led by renowned anthroPologist Clyde Kluclehohn, conducted an extensive study offive culturally dijferent communities in a raral area of westema New Mexico.The study was ground brealeing in its cross-disciPlinaiy aPProach to the study of cttltural values, and it has become a classic.The Pseudonym "sed for the research area was "Rimrocle."A maj'or hyPothesis of this study wtzs that culturally dtfferent communities living in the same geograPhical area and subject to similar environmental constraints would become more alilee in values on'entation over time.In 1998, nearly ftfly years after the start of the on'ginal Rimrocle study, a team of researchers from the University of New Mexico revisited the five communities to investigate onrrent conditions, and to see whether the Predictions of the original study had come to Pass.This researcher studied the small town of Fence Lalee, New Mexico, which was atzlled "Homestead" in the Rimrocle study.In addition to descn'bing the Past and current demogrmphy, economy, and family relationshiPs in Fence Lafee, thds paPer will discuss two ethical issues which emerged in the course of the researcher`s field worle: the effect of ethno-graPhic studies on their target communities, and the issue of objectivity in research.2S "fomrock" Revisited
Author: Teresa Bruner Cox
Language: English
Subfield: Anthropology
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W1938744288