The following appeared in an article written by Dr. Karp, an anthropologist.“Twenty years ago, Dr. Field, a noted anthropologist, visited the island of Tertia and concluded from his observations that children in Tertia were reared by an entire village r

Dr.Karp makes an argument that interview-centered approach is superior to the observation-centered approach and it helps better understand child-rearing traditions and culture of Tertia. He supports his argument by drawing comparisions between a study carried out by Dr.Field using observation approach twenty years ago, with a study carried out by him based on interview approach recently. HOwever, there is a need to further analyze a number of specific evidences before the argument is found to be sound.

Firstly, the author fails to provide the evidence that child rearing practises have remained constant over the period of twenty years. It may be that while twenty years ago children were reared by the entire village rather than biological parents and only recently did the society of Tertia changed its practices. In that case the conclusion drawn by Dr.Field's study would be in fact valid. This makes the argument flawed. However, if Dr.Karp can prove that child rearing practices remaind almost constant only then his argument has some grounds.

Secondly, there is lack of evidence regarding the type of interview questions that have been asked as part of interview-centered method. If most of interview questions were made about their biological parents then it is most likely the children would talk mostlly about them. This makes the conclusion made that children are reared by their biological parents suspect as no reasonable deduction can be made. Thus, it makes the argument flawed.

Even if it is true that conclusion drawn by the Observation-centered method about child rearing practices in Tertia was in fact invalid, there is no specific evidence that can prove that observation-centered approach as a whole is invalid for studying Tertian village culture or other cultures. A culture of village cannot be determined by single practice but is an amalgamation of number of customs and practices. May be interview- centered approach actually fails to study other practices other than child-rearing. The argument then is simply extrapolating findings from a single practice to represent the whole culture of Tertia without providing any evidence about the robustness of interview approach about studying other practices.

In conclusion, the argument made by Dr. Karp about the superiority of Interview-centered approach has to substantiated by enough evidence. Otherwise, the argument rests on tenuous grounds.