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Research Methods
f FROM THEORY TO PRACTICE
ft
Ben Gorvine • Karl Rosengren • Lisa Stein • Kevin Biolsi
*

OXFORD
UNIVERSITY PRESS
 Contents

CHAPTER 5 Focusing Your Question and Choosing a Design 93

INSIDE RESEARCH: Diane C. Gooding, Department of Psychology,
University of Wisconsin-Madison 93
Define Your Goal 97
Define the Research Question 97
Recognize Background Assumptions 98
Form Testable Hypotheses 98
Ensure your Hypothesis Is Falsifiable 99
MEDIA MATTERS: Baby Geniuses 100
Identify Variables 102
Choose a Research Methodology 103
Quantitative Research Approaches 104
Experimental Methods I OS
Nonexperimental Methods 107
Qualitative Research Approaches 108
The Role of Theory 109
Description versus Interpretation 110
Realism versus Relativism 110
The Role of Politics 111
Advantages of Multiple Approaches and Methods 111
Reliability and Validity 112
Raising Children's Intelligence: What Works? 114

CHAPTER 6 Developing Your Research Protocol 119

INSIDE RESEARCH: Amy Bohnert, Department of Clinical and
Developmental Psychology, Loyola University Chicago 119
Obtain Your Sample 122
Populations versus Samples 122
Representative Samples 123
Do I Need a Representative Sample? 123
The College Sophomore * Problem”? 125
Labeling Populations 125
MEDIA MATTERS * WEIRD Science 126
Random Samples 128
Problems with Random Sampling 129
Alternatives to Random Sampling 129
MEDIA MATTERS: Nate Silver and the 2012 Election 130
Contents

Nonprobability Samples 130

Online Samples 131
Paying Participants 132
Choose Your Measures 132
Scales of Measurement 133
Nominal Scale 134
Ordinal Scale 135
Interval Scale 135
Ratio Scale 135
Select Your Scale 136
Reliability and Validity 136
Conduct a Power Analysis 137
Prospective versus Retrospective Power Analysis 137
Why Is Power Often Underemphasized? 138
Why Does Power Matter? 139
Formulate an Analysis Plan 139
The Art of Juggling Choices 141
Participant Recruitment Issues 141
Time Constraints 141
Money Constraints 142
Equipment Constraints 142
Make the Best Choices 142

Survey and Interview Approaches 145

INSIDE RESEARCH: John Schulenberg, Department of Psychology,
University of Michigan 145
The Pervasiveness of Surveys 148
MEDIA MATTERS: *Ihe Profligate Tooth Fairy 149
Surveys versus Interviews 151
The Pros and Cons of Surveys 152
Advantages of Surveys 152
Efficient and Economical 152
Large Sample Sizes 153
Allure of A nonymity 153
Flexibility 153
Disadvantages of Surveys 154
Selection Bias 154
Participa tion B iases 155
Non response Bias 155
 Contents

-
Self selection Bias ISS
Motivated Respondent Bias ISS
Experimenter Bias ISS
Fatigue Effects and Attrition 156
Social Desirability Bias 1 S 6
Potential Threats to Validity and Possible Solutions 157
Respondents Who Do Not Understand Questions 1S7
Respondents Who Answered Fraudulently 157
Respondents with an Agenda 1 S 8
Careless Respondents 158
The Pros and Cons of Interviews 159
Advantages of Interviews 160
Rich Data 160
Confirmation of Participant Understanding 160
Detecting Careless Interview Responding 160
Disadvantages of Interviews 161
Inefficient Use of Time and Resources 161
Interviewer Effects 161
Response Bias 162
Standardization 162
The Value of Collecting Data on Socioeconomic Status 162
Using an Existing Survey versus Creating a New One 163
Steps to Building Your Own Questionnaire 165
Question Wording 165
Simplicity Is Goodf 165
Write Questions at the Appropriate Reading Level 166
Avoid Double-barreled Questions 166
Avoid Loaded Questions 167
Be Positive! 167
Response Types 168
-
Open-ended versus Closed ended Responses 168
Likert Scales and Response Format 169
Evaluating Your Survey 171
Obtain Feedback 171
Conduct Pilot Testing 171
Assess Instrument Reliability 172
Test - retest Reliability 172
Parallel-forms Reliability 172
Internal Consistency 172
Use Factor Analysis for Advanced Scale Construction 173
 Contents

CHAPTER 8 Experimental Designs 177

INSIDE RESEARCH: Travil Seymour, Department of Psychology,
University of California, Santa Cruz 177
The Uniqueness of Experimental Methodology 180
Experimental Control 180
Determination of Causality 181
Internal versus External Validity 182
Key Constructs of Experimental Methods 183
Independent and Dependent Variables 183
Experimental and Control Groups 183
Placebo Effect 184
Random Assignment 185
MEDiA MATTERS: The "Sugar Pill " Knee Surgery 186
Types of Experimental Designs 187
8etween'subjects Designs 187
Advantages of Between-subjects Designs 187
-
Disadvantages of Between subjects Designs 188
Within-subjects Designs 188
-
Advantages of Within subjects Designs 189
Disadvantages of Within- subjects Designs 190
Matched - group Designs 191
Advantages of Matched -group Designs 192
Disadvantages of Matched -group Designs 193
Confounding Factors and Extraneous Variables 193
Participant Characteristics 194
The Hawthorne Effect 194
Demand Characteristics 195
Other Confounds 195
Strategies for Dealing with Confounds 196
Hold Potential Confounding Variables Constant 196
Vary Test Items and Tasks 196
-
Use Blind and Double blind Designs 196
Statistically Control for Variables That Cannot Be Experimentally Controlled 197
Use Randomization and Counterbalancing 197
Ceiling and Floor Effects 198
What Steele and Aronson Found 200
Ethical Considerations in Experimental Design 200
Placebo /Control Group and Denial of Treatment 201
Confederates and Deceit 202
 Contents

CHAPTER 9 Variations on Experimental Designs 205

INSIDE RESEARCH: Steven Asher, Department of Psychology, Duke University 205
Single - case Experimental Designs 208
Advantages of Single - case Experimental Designs 211
Disadvantages of Single - case Experimental Designs 212
Quasi- experimental Designs 213
Advantages of Quasi - experimental Designs 214
Disadvantages of Quasi -experimental Designs 215
Factorial Designs 215
Basic Factorial Designs: The 2 x 2 216
MEDIA MATTERS: Almighty Avatars 217
Experimental Independent Variables versus Participant Variables 218
Main Effects and Interactions 219
An Example of a Between - subjects Factorial Design 221
-
An Example of a Within subjects Factorial Design 221
Aw Example of a Mixed Factorial Design 222
Higher-order Factorial Designs 223

CHAPTER 10 Observation, Case Studies, Archival Research,

and Meta-analysis 227
INSIDE RESEARCH: Dan McAdams, Department of Psychology,
Northwestern University 227
Observational Methods 230
Naturalistic Observation 230
Advantages of Naturalistic Observation 231
Disadvantages of Naturalistic Observation 232
Example of Naturalistic Observation: Parent and Child Sportsmanship Behavior 233
MEDIA MATTERS: Aw American Family 234
Example of Naturalistic Observation: Child Care Quality 235
Example of Naturalistic Observation: Scale Errors 236
Structured Observation 238
Advantages of Structured Observation 238
Disadvantages of Structured Observation 238
Example of Structured Observation: Scale Errors 239
Video Recording 239
Coding of Observational Data 240
Case Studies 241
Drawing Insight from the Exceptional Drawing of Nadia 241
The Memorable Case of H .M. 242
 Contents

Advantages of Case Studies 243

Disadvantages of Case Studies 243
Archival Research 244
Advantages of Archival Research 245
Disadvantages of Archival Research 245
Meta -analysis 245
Advantages of Meta-analysis 248
Disadvantages of Meta - analysis 249

CHAPTER 1 Neuroscience Methods 253

INSIDE RESEARCH * Marie T. Banich , Department of Psychology
and Institute of Cognitive Science, University of Colorado, Boulder 253
The Importance of Understanding Neuroscience 256
Neuroimaging Techniques 258
Electroencephalography 258
Magnetic Resonance Imaging 264
Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging 267
Diffusion -weighted Imaging 269
MEDIA MATTERS: Helping the Blind to S«e 271
Near-infrared Spectroscopy 272
Ethical Issues in Neuropsychology 273
Safety Concerns 274
Finding Incidental Brain Abnormalities 275
Bias in Participant Selection 275
Using Neuroscience in Conjunction with Other Methods 276

Research over Age and Time 279

INSIDE RESEARCH: Erika Hoff, Department of Psychology,
Florida Atlantic University 279
Defining Developmental Terms 282
Designs to Study Change over Age and Time 283
Cross- sectional Designs 283
MEDIA MATTERS: An Aging and Able Workforce 284
Adva ntages of Cross-sectional Designs 285
Disadvantages of Cross-sectional Designs 285
Longitudinal Research Designs 286
Advantages of Longitudinal Designs 288
Disadvantages of Longitudinal Designs 289
 Contents

Cross- sequential Designs 291

Advantages of Cross- sequential Designs 292
Disadvantages of Cross-sequential Designs 293
Microgenetic Designs 293
Advantages of Microgenetic Methods 294
Disadvantages of Microgenetic Methods 294
Additional Challenges to Consider in Developmental Designs 294
Determining the Underlying Cause of Changes 295
Finding Equivalent Measures 295
Determining the Appropriate Sampling Interval 296
Summary of Research Investigating Change over Time 297

CHAPTER 13 Analyzing Your Data I: An Overview 301

INSIOE RESEARCH: Lawrence Hubert, Professor Emeritus of Psychology,
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign 301
The Steps of Data Analysis 304
Checking and Cleaning Data 304
Computing Descriptive Statistics 305
Creating Visual Displays for Univariate Descriptive Statistics 306
Stem - and - leaf Plots 308
Histograms 308
Box -and - whisker Plot 308
Computing Bivariate Descriptive Statistics and Creating Visual Displays 309
Scatterplots 311
Contingency Tables 312
Computing Effect Sizes 313
Raw Effects 313
Standardized Effects 313
-
Correlation like Effects 314
Confidence Intervals 315
Inferential Statistics and Null Hypothesis Significance Testing 315
Example 1: Assessing the Fairness of a Coin 316
Example 2: Comparison of Two Means 318
Ike Normal Distribution 319
Sampling Distributions 319
Standard Error 321
Central Limit Theorem 321
Criticisms of NHST 322
Misuse of p as an Indicator of Importance 323
Contents

Arbitrary Nature of Reject/Fail-to -Reject Decisions 324

Misinterpretation of the p Value 324
A Culture of Low - Power Studies 325
Going beyond NHST: Effect Size and Confidence Intervals 326
MEDIA MATTERS: Publication Bias and a Possible Solution 327
Focus on Effect Size 328
Use Confidence Intervals 328

Analyzing Your Data II: Specific Approaches 333

INSIDE RESEARCH: Ying (‘Alison ’) Cheng, Department of Psychology,
University of Notre Dame 333
General Approach to Data Analysis 336
MEDIA MATTERS: The Power of the p Value 337
Comparing Means 340
One -Sample t Test 340
Independent-Samples t Test 342
Matched -Pairs t Test 344
Comparisons of More Than Two Means: ANOVA 346
Independent-Groups One-Way ANOVA ( Between Subjects) 346
Multiple Comparisons 348
Repeated- Measures One - Way ANOVA ( Within Subjects) 349
Two -Way ANOVA 351
Interactions 353
Multiple Comparisons 354
Comparing Counts/Frequencies 354
2 X 2 Tables 355
X 2 Test of Independence for R X C Contingency Tables 356
Tests of Association: Correlation and Regression 357
Pearsons r 357
Linear Regression 358
Tests on Ordinal Data 360
Assumption Violations 361
Random Sampling and Independence of Observations 361
Nonnormal Distributions 362
Outliers 362
Skewed Distributions 362
Unequal Variances 364
Unequal Cell Sizes in Factorial ANOVA Designs 364
Lack of Sphericity with Repeated Measures 364
 Contents

Robust Statistical Methods 365

Bayesian Data Analysis 366
Advantages of Bayesian Approaches 367
Disadvantages of Bayesian Approaches 368

CHAPTER 15 Writing Up Your Results 373

INSIDE RESEARCH: Stella Christie, Department of Psychology,
Swarthmore College 373
Determining Your Audience 376
Elements of Good Scientific Writing 377
Clear 377
Concise 377
Compelling 378
Be Interesting 37S
Use Logical, Evidence based Reasoning 378
-
Start and End Strong 379
Use Active Voice 379
Write Multiple Drafts and Proofread 379
Overall Manuscript Flow and Organization 379
Hourglass Organization 380
The Right Level of Detail 380
Basic Sections of a Quantitative Research Paper 381
Title Page 381
Abstract 382
Introduction 384
Methods and Procedures 386
Participants 386
Materials 388
Procedures 389
Results 390
Discussion 393
References 394
Figures and Tables 394
MEDIA MATTERS: When Research Is Misrepresented 395
Common Issues to Consider 396
0
Avoid Using the Word °Prove 396
Do Not Anthropomorphize 396
Round to the Nearest Decimal that Captures the Accuracy of the
Measurement Tool 396
Contents

Report Data in a Meaningful Manner 396

Be Careful How You Report Your Statistics 397
Provide Enough Detail about the Statistical Test Used to Examine the Data 397
Keep the Statistics Simple 397
Discuss Hypotheses and Limitations 397

Variations from a Single - experiment Paper 398

Multiple - experiment Papers 398
Qualitative Research Reports 398

Publishing Your Research 401

INSIOE RESEARCH: Haxel Rose Markus, Department of Psychology,
Stanford University 401
The Paper Is Done! Now What ? 404
Presenting Research at Conferences 404
Types of Conferences 405
Choosing the Right Conference 406
Audience 406
Status 406
Size 406
Location 407
Presentation Formats 407
Poster Presentations 407
Oral Presentations 408
Symposia 409
Podium Talks 409
Data Blitzes 409
Choosing the Right Presentation Format 409
Writing Up Research for Publication 410
The APA -Style Manuscript 410
Types of Journals 411
MED4A MATTERS: Q_& A with Economist Science Writer Matt Kaplan 412
Choosing the Proper Home for Your Research 413
The Review Process 415
Paper Submission 415
Editorial Review 415
Soliciting Reviewer Feedback 416
Receiving Reviewer Feedback 416
 Contents £29B
Revising 417
The Imperfect Review Process 417
Publication 418
MEDIA MATTERS: The Rise in Retractions 419

Appendix 423

Glossary 424

References 437

Credits 455

Author Index 457

Subject Index 462

 Preface
Research Methods: From Theory to Practice is designed primarily for students who want to or
will be expected to conduct research or for those who want to understand research as it
occurs from the “ inside." As its name suggests, this text guides students through the entire
—
research process from learning about the wide range of current methods, to the first step
of developing a research question , and through the final stage of writing up and publishing
results.
Our first goal for this book is to provide new researchers with the knowledge and
skills they need to begin ethical, creative research. Although this book focuses primar -
ily on psychological research, its content is relevant for anyone interested in doing re -
search in the social and behavioral sciences. Our second and closely related goal for this
book is to help students become not only producers of research, but also educated con -
sumers of the research they encounter daily in online news sources, blogs, social media,
and printed newspapers and magazines. These reports often provide brief snippets from
actual research, but with an unstated marketing bias. We believe that every educated
adult in our society should know when to trust these accounts and how to evaluate
them.
Given the large number of research methods books on the market, someone could rea -
sonably ask why another book on this topic is necessary. Because two of us have taught re-
search methods and helped redesign the research methods classes at Northwestern
University and the University of Wisconsin, we feel there is a need for a novel approach to
this course. In our experience, we have found that the majority of current research methods
texts are not written with the notion that students will conduct their own research projects,
nor do they provide beginning students with much guidance about becoming involved in
research .
By contrast, Research Methods: From Theory to Practice delves into the practical chal -
lenges that face new researchers. For example, although most current textbooks include
information on ethics, we devote an entire chapter to describing how to negotiate an insti-
tutional review board, much of it drawn from our personal experience working on and with
such boards. Our final chapter gives detailed information on presenting research at confer -
-
ences and how to find the right publication outlet for research, a topic we think will be par
ticularly valuable as more and more undergraduates work toward these goals.
We also include two chapters on statistics. This may seem odd given that most col -
leges and universities require a separate statistics course prior to a research methods
course . However, we have seen that many students taking research methods need at least

XVIII
 Preface

.
a refresher, if not a more comprehensive review, of statistical material Additionally, a
number of colleges and universities are moving toward an integrated sequence of sta -
tistics and research methods courses, an approach we feel is quite productive . These
statistics chapters provide up - to- date information about current controversies regard-
ing the continued use of null hypothesis testing with a view to what the future might
hold for data analysis, while also providing students with a requisite understanding of
the traditional model. We also present material on research over time (or developmen -
tal approaches) , neuroscience, qualitative research, case study approaches, single -
subject experimental designs, and meta- analysis. Although wTe acknowledge that
few undergraduates will use these methods in their undergraduate careers, we feel that
this information will make them better critical consumers of research w’herever they
encounter it.

FEATURES
Research Methods: From Theory to Practice contains a number of distinct features. Each
chapter begins with an Inside Research section drawn from interviews of leading psy-
chological researchers wThose work exemplifies the content of that chapter. Their shared
experiences about their research studies, struggles, and career choices help demystify
and personalize the research process and capture some of its inherent excitement for stu-
dents. We have also interspersed researcher quotes that provide insights into particular
issues throughout the textbook. An Abstract presents an overview of what will be cov -
ered in the chapter. A Flow Chart depicts the organization of the research process and
important choice points. The flow chart in Chapter 1 provides an overview of the entire
research process, emphasizing iterative aspects of research. Flow charts in subsequent
chapters zoom in on sections of the initial flowchart relevant to the material covered in
the chapter. Each chapter includes at least one Media Matters section that analyzes and
evaluates how a particular research study or general topic relevant to the chapter is por-
trayed in the mass media. Practical Tips boxes highlight central concepts introduced in
each chapter and a Chapter Summary recaps the key issues. Two pedagogical elements
conclude each chapter. The first is Up for Discussion, which offers a series of thought
questions meant to push the reader beyond the text to consider wider applications of the
material. The second is a list of Key Terms defined in the Marginal Glossary within
each chapter. Although many terms are specific to research methods and analysis, others
come from diverse areas of psychology to broaden students’ understanding of the field.
Our Accompanying Instructor’s Manual not only presents standard material such as
chapter outlines, slides, and exam questions, but also includes details and examples
regarding how to conduct data analysis in SPSS and R. These analyses are based on the
examples provided in the chapters.
Preface

ORGANIZATION
Whereas many instructors like to assign chapters in a textbook in the order in which
they appear, our own experience has taught us that this can he difficult in a research
methods class, especially one that requires students to conduct mini- research projects .
In a sense, to be a skilled researcher and critical consumer of research , you need to know
-
all of the material covered in this book to start with This is clearly not practical or pos-
sible. For this reason, we have designed chapters to stand alone as references for a par-
ticular method or issue, so that they might be used in an order that best Fits an instructor.
We have also placed a chapter on ethics early in the book and presented material on
ethics throughout the text to reflect our belief that ethical concerns should be consid -
ered throughout the research process. In our own research methods courses, we include
in almost every class a brief discussion of ethical issues relevant to a particular method
or gleaned from a recent press account.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
A book like this takes some time and a lot of help! We are particularly thankful for Jane
Potter at Oxford University Press for convincing us that we should write this book. We
are grateful to Lisa Sussman at Oxford University Press for her careful editing of the text
and for guiding us through the entire process. We also thank the many reviewers and
students who read drafts of chapters, as well as the many students who have taken our
research methods classes. Your thoughts and comments have undoubtedly made this a
better book! We thank the following reviewers:

Michael D. Anes, Wittenberg University Elizabeth Cooper, University of

Suzette Astley, Cornell College
Jodie Baird, Swarthmore College
-
Levi R . Baker Russell ,
University of Tennessee
Cole Barton, Davidson College
Timothy Bickmore,
Northeastern University
Caitlin Brez, Indiana State University
Kimberly A . Carter, California State
University, Sacramento
Janessa Carvalho, Bridgewater State
University
Herbert L. Colston, University of
Wisconsin-Parkside
Tennessee, Knoxville
Katherine Corker, Kenyon College
Randolph R. Cornelius, Vassar College
Amanda ElBassiouny, Spring Hill College
Catherine Forested, The College
of William & Mary
Judith G. Foy, Loyola Marymount
University
Ronald S. Friedman, University at Albany,
State University of New York
Kathleen Gcher, State University of New
York, New Paltz
Frank M. Groom , Ball State University
David Haaga, American University
William Indick, Dowling College
Mark A. Jackson, Transylvania University
Kulwinder Kaur-Walker, Elizabeth City
State University
Victoria Kazmerski, Pennsylvania State
University, Erie
Marina Klimenko, University of Florida
Nate Kornell, Williams College
Rebecca LaFountain, Pennsylvania State
University, Harrisburg
Huijun Li, Florida A& M University
Stella G. Lopez, University of Texas at San
Antonio
William McKibbin, University
of Michigan, Flint
Lindsay Mchrkam, University of Florida
Kathryn Oleson, Reed College
Bonnie Perdue, Agnes Scott College
Bill Peterson , Smith College
Thomas Redick , Purdue University
Monica Riordan, Chatham University
Melissa Scircle, Millikin University
Elizabeth Sheehan , Georgia State
University
Angela Sikorski, Texas A& M University
Texarkana
Meghan Sinton, College of William and
Mary
Mark Stellmack, University of Minnesota
Janet Trammell, Pepperdine University
Andrew Triplett, Loyola University
Chicago
Laura Butkovsky Turner, Roger Williams
University
Barbara J. Vail, Rocky Mountain College
Luis A. Vega, California State University,
Bakersfield
John L. Wallace, Ball State University
Mark Whiting, Radford University
Ryan M. Yoder, Indiana Univcrsity-
Purdue University, Fort Wayne

Finally, we thank all of our families. Ben thanks Amy for her endless patience with the
length and scope of this project and her invaluable help in designing several of the figures in
the chapter on experimental methods. He also thanks his daughters, F.mma and Sophie, for
their love and for providing the motivation to push through this project. Karl thanks Sarah
for listening to many crazy research ideas and helping to turn them into more practical
ones, as well as providing support on a daily basis. Karl also thanks his daughters, Emily
and Julia, for their love and support. Lisa thanks Daniel for his constant encouragement,
-
invaluable IT support, and take out dinners and Madeline, Emma, and Owen for making
everything worthwhile. Kevin thanks Carol, Lauren, and Megan for their love, encourage -
ment, and support.
X
 1
Why You Should Care about
Research Methods

Introduction Methods for Evaluating Claims

The Extraordinary Coffee Bean
Trust the Experts

to Research
Read and Evaluate Past Research
Search for Convergence
How to Evaluate the Quality
of Reported Research

Methods
How Cognitive Biases and Heuristics
l Affect Your Judgment
Conducting Your Own Research
to Evaluate Claims

Distinction oetween Science

irisiDE RESEARCH: MARTHA
and Pseudoscience
ARTERBERRY The Goals of Science
The Scientific Method
Distinction between Applied
and Basic Research
The Research Process
and Organization of This Book

Professor and Department Chair,

Department of Psychology, Colby
College

As an undergraduate at Pomona College I discovered I liked to

do research, especially the idea of asking questions and finding
the answers. I was taking a statistics course, and I really enjoyed
.
using data to test hypotheses (My students think l'n crazy when
I tell them this.)
At the same time, I was fascinated by the study of art history. In
my art history classes, I thought a lot about how an artist rep-
resents the world in a painting or an idea in a three-dimensional
sculpture. Also, I used to spend summers making pots. I lovec
ceramics, especially making bowls and goblets, and thinking
about the motor actions that allowed me to create these

1
CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION TO RESEARCH METHODS

three -dimensional shapes, sometimes upside- down on a potter's wheel, and

thinking about how others eventually will perceive them.
It all came together for me when I took a seminar on perception, as a visiting
student at Swarthmore College, from Philip Kellman. He had a "baby lab," and I
remember being intrigued. I had no idea there was even an area of research called
infant perception. I askeo, " What is a baby lab and can I work there?" He let me
volunteer and that was the first time I die hands-on psychological research. I loved
it, and I still love it.
My research in the baby lab made me realize that perceptual psychologists, like
artists, also think a lot about how to represent the world. Human perceivers may not
be creating something on a canvas, but they're trying to make sense of the informa -
tion. It was through art that I got interested in perception, and the question of how it
all starts go:me to babies. The intersection of all these different areas is a great
example of the power of a liberal arts education.
An overarching theme in my research asks the question: What information
enables us to perceive the world and how does the ability to use this information
develop? My initial work focused on infants' perception of depth and three -
aimensional object shape. More recently, I am interested in what information infants
use to group objects together, a process called categorizat on. Working with young
participants who don't talk adds another layer of complexity to my research. Infant
perception researchers use creative methods that allow us to infer what a baby
might perceive or know. It is like cracking a code! It is another challenge to the
research process, but one that makes it even more fun to do.

Martha Arterberry has combined her interests in areas as diverse as statistics, art
history, and infant development to study how human beings come to perceive the
world. She uses a varioty of research methods, such as observing children's behav -
ior, electroencephalograms, and an eye tracker to quantify eye movements. Her
work is at the forefront of an explosion in research on the development of
perception.
Research Focus: Perception and cognition in infants, children, and adults
 THE RESEARCH PROCESS
This flowchart provides an overview of
the research process, emphasizing the
iterative aspects of research . Flow -
Complete ethics training charts in subsequent chapters zoom in
on sections of this flowchart relevant

*
Formulate a research
to the covered material.

question

Generate testable
Hypotheses

Choose a research
method

*
Develop a research

A protocol

*
Complete IRB proposal

*
Obtain IRB
approval

N *
Collect pilot data

*
Collect actual data

*
Analyze data

*
Write up study

*
Publish or present study
CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION TO RESEARCH METHODS

Chapter Abstract
In this chapter, we discuss the importance of research methods and their relevance not only
to the scientific process but also to daily life. We explore various approaches to evaluating the
constant, ubiquitous stream of reports of research findings in the media and advertising, as
well as results published in scholarly journals. We present examples of fraudulent and uneth -
-
ical researchers to help instill a healthy skepticism of all research findings. Finally, we intro
duce the fundamentaldistinction between science and pseudoscience and present a flowchart
depicting the research process that will guide the organization of subsequent chapters.

WHY YOU SHOULD CARE ABOUT RESEARCH

METHODS
There are two main reasons why you should know something about research methods.
First, such knowledge helps you better understand research findings reported in the
— —
media whether digital, broadcast, or print and advertisements. How can you tell
whether the claims made are justifiable and believable ? In the past few years alone, compa
nies and researchers have claimed that listening to Mozart boosts ICi, wearing magnetic
bracelets reduces pain and motion sickness and promotes better balance, drinking coffee
and red wine promotes health, drinking pomegranate juice reduces cholesterol and boosts
heart health , and drinking diet soda may increase women’s risk for depression. Are any of
these claims true ? How would you find out ?
Second , understanding research methods can aid in many of your everyday decisions. In
terms of both physical and psychological well-being, a deeper knowledge of methods can
-
help you make good health care decisions. In terms of being a consumer, this knowledge
can help you evaluate advertising claims made about a new car, television, or computer so
that you can make the best possible choice.
Another good reason to know about research is so that you can conduct your own re -
search. Doing research can be a fun, creative, and rewarding experience, but becoming a
skilled researcher requires a certain amount of knowledge. Our hope is that by reading this
book, you will acquire the knowledge to be a better consumer of research and to conduct
your own research project.

METHODS FOR EVALUATING CLAIMS

One way to evaluate research claims made by researchers, reporters, or health care-related
wrebsites is to simply accept them at face value because they are based on the opinions of
 Methods for Evaluating Claims

experts. After all, if some expert did not support the claim, it would not appear in the news
or on the Web, right ?
Do you blindly trust experts cited in a newspaper or online ? How do you know who you
can trust ? Many reports do not even mention a specific expert, so how can you determine
whether the report and reporting provide an accurate description of trustworthy results?
A second approach for evaluating claims is to read and evaluate the actual research. But
often you will find competing accounts that are difficult to interpret without extensive
knowledge of a particular field of study. How, then, do you evaluate the claims found in
different sources and come to your own conclusion ? This evaluation process becomes easier
as you gain experience and learn to judge the quality of the research and conclusions.
A third method for evaluating claims is to search for similar results, or converging
evidence, about claims made in news releases (in print or online) and original research.
( onvergiug ev idence refers to results from multiple research investigations that provide Converging
evidence Results
similar findings. But when you begin to search for converging results, you may be con - from multiple research
fronted with a diverse set of facts and opinions that can be difficult to sort out. investigations that
Finally, you could conduct your own research project to lest the claims, but many indi- provide similar
viduals do not have the knowledge or resources to conduct such tests. We will delve into findings.
this approach over the course of this book; much of the book is targeted to help you design
and conduct your own research project.

The Extraordinary Coffee Bean

As an introduction to evaluating particular claims that appear in the media, we present two
reports about coffee and consider how you might evaluate their veracity. We examine issues
of expertise, reading, and evaluating past research; the importance of finding convergent
evidence; and particular aspects to look for in a report of a research finding.
For many years, reports about the health benefits of caffeine have circulated in the media.
A New York Times article highlighted in Figure 1.1 suggests that caffeine consumers have a
lower death rate than individuals who abstain from caffeine. Should we trust Jane Brody
and her reporting? How can we know whether the research she reported really supports the
claim that is being made ?
There are multiple ways to evaluate the report . First, you could try to find out wrho
conducted the original research . Was it a trained, objective researcher or someone hired
by Starbucks or some other coffee supplier ? The blurb in Figure 1.1 does not contain this
information, but if you look at the original press report ( Brody, 2012), you will find that
Dr. Neal Freedman and his colleagues conducted the study. Dr. Freedman is listed as an
epidemiologist at the National Cancer Institute, and the research was published in 7he
.
New England Journal of Medicine He seems like a trained researcher, so perhaps we
should accept the findings. But skepticism is a good trait wThen reading newspapers or
websites, and wTe will explore in the next section why trusting the experts may or may not
be a good thing.
 CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION TO RESEARCH METHODS

Having Your Coffee and Enjoying It Too

. .
By JANE E.BRODY [NY TIMES June 25 2012]
A disclaimer: I do not own stock In
Starbucks nor, to my knowledge, in
any other company that sells coffee or
its accoutrement. I last wrote about
America's most popular beverage four
years ago, and the latest and largest
study to date supports that earlier
assessment of coffee s health effects.
Although the new research, which
involved more than 400 ,000 people in
a 14- year observational study, still
cannot prove cause and effect, the
findings are consistent with other recent large studies. The findings were widely reported, but
here’s the bottom line : When smoking and many other factors known to influence health and
longevity were taken Into account coffee drinkers in the study were found to be living somewhat
longer than abstainers. Further , the more coffee consumed each day —up to a point, at least—
the greater the benefit to longevity. The observed benefit of coffee drinking was not enormous—
a death rate among coffee drinkers that was 10 percent to 15 percent lower than among
FIGURE 1.1* The abstainers. But the findings are certainly reassuring, and given how many Americans drink
benefits of coffee. coffee, the numbers of lives affected may be quite large .

Second, you could dig for converging evidence from other websites or news outlets. Do
multiple sites provide converging evidence ? Unfortunately, not all of them will cover the
—
same aspects of a story. The press release Green Coffee Diet Free Offer: Ute Magic Weight
Loss Cure for Every Body Type (shown in Figure 1.2) discusses how Dr. Oz (from the popular
Dr. Oz television show) suggests that taking green coffee bean supplements can lead to
“magic weight loss’’ ( Weight Loss Pills Network, 2016). Is Dr. Oz an expert on caffeine or
weight loss? Is he even a real doctor? How should we evaluate these two reports, and should
we drink coffee or take green coffee bean supplements, or both ?
Third, you could use knowledge of research methods to help you evaluate the claims. We
will go into this approach in more detail shortly. Here, we describe potential approaches
you can use as you encounter research claims reported in the media.

Trust the Experts

Trusting the experts is a common strategy. After all, the New York Times and other newspa-
pers would not report inaccurate or wrong information, would they ? One piece of informa -
tion to help you determine accuracy is whether the news report is based on an original
Secondary source .
research study, an interview with the lead researcher, or some secondary source Even if the
An article or reference report lists the journal that published the research, you still cannot be sure it is based on the
in which the author
describes research that -
original data. Many scientific journals (or periodicals with scientific sounding names) pub-
has previously been lish secondary reports of research, meaning they are not the original source. The problem
published. with using secondary sources is exemplified by the old game of “telephone,"’ where one
 Methods for Evaluating Claims

Magic Weight Loss Ours for Every Body Type:

Chlorogenic acid levels The green coffee bean is the latest buzz in the "battle
of the bulge." Since recenlly be >g studied on the
H «gh *
popular Doctor Oz television show, millions of people
are praising this so called ‘miracle weight Joss pill."
Surprisingly , many people who struggle daily with
the* r weight have yet to hear about this powerful
supplement
What has the scientific community so excited about
^ groon ooffee bean extract is that people don't have to do
anything different when taking this food supplement .
They don't need to exercise, and they donl nsed
to (Set they just appear to Jose pounds fast.
Green Coflee Extract Helps Burn Mora Fat:
Let 's cut to the chase: The most recent study on
the green ooffee bean published In the Diabetes.
Metabolic Syndrome and Obesly journal followed
a group of 16 adults who supplemented with green
Roasted Green coffoe bean for only 12 wee s. Over the course of the
coffea bean coffee bean *
study, the subjects lost an average of 17 pounds
—
each this was 10.5% of their overall Oody weight
and 16% of their overall body fatl There were no side effects reported. This Is very exciting information and FIGURE 1.2. Press
.
one reason why I th nk that green coffee bean could be an effective weapon against the obesity epidemic in release for green coffee
our country.
diet.

person whispers a phrase in the ear of the next person and so on dowm the line, so that by
the time the message gets to the end of the line, it sounds nothing like the original. The same
—
holds true for research findings the farther you get from the source, the less accurate the
information becomes.
If the press release quotes the lead researcher, you can generally assume that the report is
based on the original research and not some secondary source. But how can you tell whether
the lead researcher is trustworthy? Generally, if researchers are faculty members or scien -
tists at known universities or research institutes (such as the National Cancer Institute or
the National Institutes of Health), you can assume they are highly qualified experts in their
particular field. But even experts have biases and vested interests, and some skepticism is
-
always warranted (see "Media Matters: The Persistent Autism Vaccine Myth"). For exam -
ple, it is always useful to know who paid for the research. Did Dr. Freedman and his col
leagues receive payment by coffee producers or suppliers to conduct their research ?
-
Even researchers from respected universities sometimes cross the line. In 2010, the Stan -
ford University School of Medicine confronted scandals involving conflict-of-interest
.
issues with a number of prominent researchers In one instance, a psychiatrist allowed a
pharmaceutical company to ghostwrite a book on pharmacology. Another case involved 12
Stanford physicians who accepted relatively large sums of money (some more than
$100,000) for speaking engagements involving talks about the drugs made at that pharma-
ceutical company ( Reid, 2010). It is important, especially if a particular drug or product is
being advocated, to determine who is sponsoring the research and whether the researcher
 CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION TO RESEARCH METHODS
MEDIA MATTERS
The Persistent Autism-Vaccine Myth
When Andrew Wakefield claimed in 1998 that he had
found a link between the onset of autism and the mea - reported that the parents had noted the onset of some
sles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine, he set off a
public opinion firestorm that burns in the media to this
day. Although Wakefield ’s findings did not hold up
under scrutiny, some parents shunned not only MMR
but also all vaccines for their children and encouraged
others to follow their example.
Wakefield s mythical autism vaccine connection
stands as a powerful cautionary tale of what can happen
when fraudulent research meets mass media amplifica -
tion and parents desperate to find an explanation for
their children’s suffering. According to one medical
anthropologist, the controversy surrounding child - eventually the brain in a syndrome he calls "autistic en -
hood vaccines has been a factor in ‘the long- term ero -
sion of public trust in science" (Gross, 2009).
In the past IS years, the antivaccination movement,
joined by the celebrity Jenny McCarthy, who blamed
MMR for her son's symptoms of autism ( Lowry, 2014),
has rallied around Wakefield. It has contributed to an
increase in measles and mumps in Europe and the
United States, and significant outbreaks of whooping
cough in California in 2010 and 201S because some
parents have refused to vaccinate their children (Gross,
2015; Hiltzik, 2014a). Moreover, scientists and public
officials refuting the autism-vaccine link have rou -
tinely received malicious e- mails, phone calls, and
even death threats (Gross, 2009),
Newspaper headlines and broadcast news trum -
peted Wakefield s research linking autism and the
MMR vaccine, citing its appearance in The Lancet, a
prestigious peer- reviewed medical journal founded in
London in 1823. Wakefield , a gastroenterologist, led
the study (Hiltzik, 2014b). It comprised 12 develop-
mental challenged children, 9 of whom were
^
showing some signs of autism (Deer, 2011). Wakefield
of the childrens behavioral symptoms immediately
after receiving the MMR vaccine, and he presented
these observations as fact (Deer, 2011). As Brian Deer
detailed in an investigative report in the British Medi -
cal Journal, the paper is rife with discrepancies, includ -
ing falsified data and misreported or changed time
frames, symptoms, and diagnoses (Deer, 2011).
Wakefield argued that the children suffered from
‘regressive autism ' caused by colitis. Specifically, he
1
proposed that the measles virus earned a leaky gut,
sending toxic substances into the bloodstream and
terocolitis" (Gross, 2009). The combination of the
three vaccines into one was the culprit, he said, and
separating them into three separate vaccines would be
safer (Gross, 2009).
What Wakefield did not reveal in the article or in his
subsequent press conference was his work on a rival
measles vaccine (Gross, 2009). He had received fund -
ing in 1997 from a Norfolk solicitor (lawyer) with
whom he was working on a lawsuit against the manu -
facturers of MMR (Deer, 2011).
The Lancet published a retraction of Wakefield s
paper in 2010, and many reputable news outlets even -
tually reported on allegations against his research and
his denial of any wrongdoing. Britain's General Medi -
cal Council banned Wakefield from practicing medi-
cine ( Hannaford, 2013), citing unprofessional
conduct. Over the next few years, a range of media out
lets denounced Wakefield 's research and conduct (e.g.,
-
" The Aftermath ," 2013).
But the damage had been done. Parental online
groups continue to support Wakefield s claims, and
 Methods for Evaluating Claims

Wakefield promoted his theories in the book Callous
Disregard (2010), in public speaking events, and online
( Hannaford, 2013).
Signs are beginning to emerge, however, of a grow-
ing media backlash to the antivaccination movement ,
Interestingly, posts on social media regularly encour-
age parents to vaccinate their children, pointing to re-
ports on the surge in cases of measles and whooping
cough (e.g., Ingraham, 2015). Perhaps media will, in
the end, put out the fire it helped to create.

has a bias, vested interest, or conflict of interest that should make you skeptical about the
validity of the findings.
You can usually determine the source of a researcher 's funding by checking the orig-
inal publication and the researcher ’s website. Although investigators are typically re-
quired to disclose this information, some unethical researchers fail to provide it or, in
some cases, as did members of the Stanford faculty, say they did not know it was
required.
Unfortunately, sometimes even well-known researchers from respected universities
engage in fraud. In 2011 , Diederik Stapel, a prominent and widely published social psy-
chologist , admitted that he had faked data about research findings on stereotyping , dis-
crimination, advertising, and situations where individuals appeared to prefer negative
feedback to praise ( Aldhous, 2011). His research was reported in a number of top scien -
tific journals, including Science, one of the most prestigious publications on science
news and research . A number of junior researchers alleging scientific misconduct un -
covered Stapel s fraud. Close investigation of the data in many of these studies suggested
a number of anomalies, including surprisingly large experimental effects and data that
lacked any outliers.
Another case of scientific misconduct rocked the campus of Harvard University in 2010,
when the psychologist Marc Hauser was accused of fabricating and falsifying data in exper-
iments funded by the U.S. government (Carpenter, 2012). Members of Hausers own re-
search team called into question the truthfulness of his research findings on biological Martha Artarbarry :
origins of cognition and morality. Like Stapel s work, Hausers work was published in Science , " Results often have
as well as other leading scientific journals ( Cognition , Proceedings of the Royal Society ).Eventu- several interpreta -
ally, I lauser was found to have engaged in a number ofinstanccs of scientific misconduct, and tions, so it is im-
he resigned from I iarvard. portant to look at
Both of these examples highlight the idea that knowledge of research methods helps you the data and gener-
—
—
evaluate the validity of research claims. If the data look too good or the claims too shock-
ing or grandiose ( “ Lose weight like magic**) to be true, they probably are. These examples
also underscore the idea that you should approach press releases and even research pub-
lished in high -quality scientific journals with a skeptical eye. Do not always assume the
ate and evaluate the
conclusions for your-
self. Don' t rely on
others to do this, not
expert is right. even the experts!"
 CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION TO RESEARCH METHODS

Read and Evaluate Past Research

Martha Arterberry: Another way to evaluate claims in the mainstream media is to search out and read the pub -
"Often the best lished research on the topic. With a strong background in research methods, you are in a
studies include a better position to recognize particular flaws in the design, method, analysis, or inferences
replication of an- drawn from the data that might make it difficult to trust the claims made by an author,
other researcher' s manufacturer, or researcher. As with looking for converging reports across different popu -
finding and then an lar press outlets, such as the New York Times and the Chicago Tribune, it is always useful to
extension of the examine a number of research articles to evaluate a particular claim. Chapter 4 includes
work , which allows more detail about how to find and evaluate relevant research articles. Researchers do not
for an advanced
understanding of
—
always agree and if they do not, you will need to track down more articles to evaluate the
validity of an overall claim. In some cases, if an equal number of studies support or refute
the phenomenon. ' 1
the claim, you may be left with no clear conclusion.

Search for Convergence

As mentioned previously, another good way to evaluate a claim made in the mainstream
.
media or scholarly journals is to look for converging evidence Ideally, you want to find
multiple websites or research articles that provide the same or similar information and con -
clusions. This does not always lead to a simple answer. For example, when one of the authors
was helping his daughter with a report on the jazz trumpeter Louis Armstrong, he could not
find any definitive information about Armstrong's birthdate. Some sites listed it as July 4,
1900, whereas others reported it as August 4, 1901. The latter was eventually confirmed as
the actual birthdate when a baptismal certificate was found ( http:// www.satchmo.com /
louisarmstrong / ). However, it took some time for various publications and websites to
come to a consensus. As late as 2010, Columbia University's radio station celebrated
Armstrongs birthday with a broadcast of his music from July 3 to July 5, suggesting some
still believe his birthday is July 4 ( Walkington, 2010).
With specific research findings, a person knowledgeable about research and methodol -
Replication The ogy will look to see whether the results have been replicated . Replication occurs when re -
process through which searchers achieve the same or highly similar results after repeating a study or experiment
cither live original
researcher or the Although you should still be skeptical if the original researcher is the only one to replicate
researchers from an the results, if the results hold up over time and are reported by independent laboratoriesand
independent laboratory researchers, you can be fairly confident of their validity.
repeat the investigation
and obtain the same or
highly similar results. How to Evaluate the Quality of Reported Research
As shown in our coffee bean example, media routinely report on new research findings,
and determining whether a researcher's claims are valid or justified , a concept referred
Conclusion validity to as conclusion validit , can be tricky. We will discuss this concept in more detail in
Making the determina - Chapter 5.
tion as to whether a
researchers claims are Several pieces of information will help you evaluate the quality of the research that backs
valid or justified. up an article s claims. First, does the article list the names of the researchers? If it does, you

y
 Methods for Evaluating Claims

can use this information to determine whether the lead researcher has basic qualifications
and experience.
Second, does the article, website, or press release identify where the research was con -
ducted ? Although research is conducted at different types of institutions (academic and
nonacademic), knowing the particular institution can help you determine whether the re-
searchers have the necessary resources and support structure to conduct high - quality re-
.
search You should avoid assuming that all findings coming from a well- known research
institution are of the highest quality, however. The pressure to produce and publish results
at some of the most competitive research institutions may lead researchers to cut corners.
As we emphasized earlier, it is always useful to evaluate research reports with a critical view.
However, one of the problems with advanced training in many disciplines is that individu -
als become hypersensitive to flaws in research, setting standards that are unattainable by
even the most thoughtful, careful researchers. If possible, determine what can be learned or
taken away from any research article, even after you have taken design flaws into account.
Conducting your own research will eventually help you understand the practical consider-
ations of all research and the fact that all researchers must make compromises.
Third , has the research been published (and , if so, in what type of journal) or is it based
on preliminary findings ? Often, researchers will present preliminary findings at national
and international conferences where other researchers can comment on and evaluate them
- .
through a peer review process It is common to see press releases based on findings re-
ported at conferences. But in other cases, researchers may go straight to the media with
what they think is a novel or “ hot’ finding, bypassing the review process that occurs when
a finding is presented in a scientific forum or journal. You should always be skeptical about
research that reports preliminaryfindings that have not been either presented at a scientific
conference or published in a respected journal .
Preliminary Findings. In fact, there are many instances where a study s preliminary
1

results are not supported when the entire data set is collected . In a number of famous
cases, researchers went straight to reporters, who championed what they thought was a
breakthrough finding, only to find out that the researchers’ claims based on preliminary
data could not be verified. One such example is “cold fusion* (Taubes, 1993), the idea that
a nuclear reaction can occur at room temperature, which opened up the possibility of
cheap, almost limitless energy. Ultimately, repeated failures to replicate the results led
the scientific community to dismiss the claim, after large sums of research funds were
expended.
In a more recent case, researchers at the European Organization for Nuclear Research
(CERN ) reported that they had recorded particles traveling faster than the speed of
light, a phenomenon judged impossible by Einsteins theory of special relativity. In this
case, the researchers themselves doubted the result and asked the scientific community
to confirm it or find the problem with their experiment, which they labeled the OPERA
 CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION T O RESEARCH METHODS

.
project (Sample, 2011) Antonio Ereditato, one of the lead researchers, stated, ” We are
very much astonished by this result, but a result is never a discovery until other people
confirm it . When you get such a result you want to make sure you made no mistakes.”
When a second team of researchers attempted to replicate the study, they failed to find
evidence of particles traveling faster than light . That result, combined with the finding
-
that an important fiber optic cable used in the original experiment was loose, poten -
tially resulting in faulty data, ultimately led scientists to reject the original claim . As this
example suggests, a crucial aspect of good science is ensuring that results can be repli -
cated, especially if they seem too good to be true or go against the bulk of established
theory and research. It is important to realize that breakthroughs do occur in science,
however, and novel findings are often slow to be accepted . Thus, although skepticism
can serve to police a scientific discipline, if taken to an extreme it can also impede the
advance of science.
-
Peer revi # w#d
journals Scholariy Published Research. Different types of publications serve as outlets for disseminating
journals whose editors research. Researchers generally try to publish in high quality scientific and scholarly
send any submitted
article out to be journals, which are collections of scholarly papers published by academic or research
evaluated by organizations. Most journals have standards for acceptance that guarantee a certain level of
knowledgeable
researchers or scholars
.
quality for the research found between their covers By and large the highest quality -
in the same field . research will be published in journals that have a peer- review process.
We will discuss the peer- review process in depth in C hapter 16, hut i n brief, peer reviewed
journals send any submitted article out to knowledgeable researchers or scholars in the
Martha Arterberry: same field. The reviewers (usually a minimum of two) evaluate the manuscript in terms of
" Nonsignificant find - the adequacy of overall writing, research methods, statistical analyses, and inferences
ings are difficult to drawn from the study.
interpret and often Recognizing higher- quality journals becomes easier as you gain expertise in your
difficult to publish; -
chosen field. High quality journals usually reject many more research studies than they
however, they are publish, with some journals having rejection rates as high as 95%. But the rejection rate is
useful (when real and only one of a number of factors that experts in a field use to evaluate journals. Other fac -
not due to study lim- tors include the expertise of the journal editor and editorial board (these individuals
itations) because we choose reviewers and make decisions about what to publish in the journal ), the scope of
learn about the full the journal (does it target a narrow scientific or more general audience?), and a history of
range of a behavior -
publishing high quality research. A research study published in a less prestigious journal
or process. For exam- may signal that the researcher made a number of compromises, which made determining
ple, we learn more the validity of the conclusions difficult. For example, to keep the costs of conducting a
about an outcome research project within budget , a researcher may choose to have a relatively small number
when we can identify of participants or use a less desirable method or technology for collecting the data. These
what does and does choices may in turn lead the reviewers to question the strength of the conclusions that can
not predict it " be drawn from the research.
Another random document with
no related content on Scribd:
 DANCE ON STILTS AT THE GIRLS’ UNYAGO, NIUCHI

Newala, too, suffers from the distance of its water-supply—at least

the Newala of to-day does; there was once another Newala in a lovely
valley at the foot of the plateau. I visited it and found scarcely a trace
of houses, only a Christian cemetery, with the graves of several
missionaries and their converts, remaining as a monument of its
former glories. But the surroundings are wonderfully beautiful. A
thick grove of splendid mango-trees closes in the weather-worn
crosses and headstones; behind them, combining the useful and the
agreeable, is a whole plantation of lemon-trees covered with ripe
fruit; not the small African kind, but a much larger and also juicier
imported variety, which drops into the hands of the passing traveller,
without calling for any exertion on his part. Old Newala is now under
the jurisdiction of the native pastor, Daudi, at Chingulungulu, who,
as I am on very friendly terms with him, allows me, as a matter of
course, the use of this lemon-grove during my stay at Newala.
 FEET MUTILATED BY THE RAVAGES OF THE “JIGGER”
(Sarcopsylla penetrans)

The water-supply of New Newala is in the bottom of the valley,

some 1,600 feet lower down. The way is not only long and fatiguing,
but the water, when we get it, is thoroughly bad. We are suffering not
only from this, but from the fact that the arrangements at Newala are
nothing short of luxurious. We have a separate kitchen—a hut built
against the boma palisade on the right of the baraza, the interior of
which is not visible from our usual position. Our two cooks were not
long in finding this out, and they consequently do—or rather neglect
to do—what they please. In any case they do not seem to be very
particular about the boiling of our drinking-water—at least I can
attribute to no other cause certain attacks of a dysenteric nature,
from which both Knudsen and I have suffered for some time. If a
man like Omari has to be left unwatched for a moment, he is capable
of anything. Besides this complaint, we are inconvenienced by the
state of our nails, which have become as hard as glass, and crack on
the slightest provocation, and I have the additional infliction of
pimples all over me. As if all this were not enough, we have also, for
the last week been waging war against the jigger, who has found his
Eldorado in the hot sand of the Makonde plateau. Our men are seen
all day long—whenever their chronic colds and the dysentery likewise
raging among them permit—occupied in removing this scourge of
Africa from their feet and trying to prevent the disastrous
consequences of its presence. It is quite common to see natives of
this place with one or two toes missing; many have lost all their toes,
or even the whole front part of the foot, so that a well-formed leg
ends in a shapeless stump. These ravages are caused by the female of
Sarcopsylla penetrans, which bores its way under the skin and there
develops an egg-sac the size of a pea. In all books on the subject, it is
stated that one’s attention is called to the presence of this parasite by
an intolerable itching. This agrees very well with my experience, so
far as the softer parts of the sole, the spaces between and under the
toes, and the side of the foot are concerned, but if the creature
penetrates through the harder parts of the heel or ball of the foot, it
may escape even the most careful search till it has reached maturity.
Then there is no time to be lost, if the horrible ulceration, of which
we see cases by the dozen every day, is to be prevented. It is much
easier, by the way, to discover the insect on the white skin of a
European than on that of a native, on which the dark speck scarcely
shows. The four or five jiggers which, in spite of the fact that I
constantly wore high laced boots, chose my feet to settle in, were
taken out for me by the all-accomplished Knudsen, after which I
thought it advisable to wash out the cavities with corrosive
sublimate. The natives have a different sort of disinfectant—they fill
the hole with scraped roots. In a tiny Makua village on the slope of
the plateau south of Newala, we saw an old woman who had filled all
the spaces under her toe-nails with powdered roots by way of
prophylactic treatment. What will be the result, if any, who can say?
The rest of the many trifling ills which trouble our existence are
really more comic than serious. In the absence of anything else to
smoke, Knudsen and I at last opened a box of cigars procured from
the Indian store-keeper at Lindi, and tried them, with the most
distressing results. Whether they contain opium or some other
narcotic, neither of us can say, but after the tenth puff we were both
“off,” three-quarters stupefied and unspeakably wretched. Slowly we
recovered—and what happened next? Half-an-hour later we were
once more smoking these poisonous concoctions—so insatiable is the
craving for tobacco in the tropics.
Even my present attacks of fever scarcely deserve to be taken
seriously. I have had no less than three here at Newala, all of which
have run their course in an incredibly short time. In the early
afternoon, I am busy with my old natives, asking questions and
making notes. The strong midday coffee has stimulated my spirits to
an extraordinary degree, the brain is active and vigorous, and work
progresses rapidly, while a pleasant warmth pervades the whole
body. Suddenly this gives place to a violent chill, forcing me to put on
my overcoat, though it is only half-past three and the afternoon sun
is at its hottest. Now the brain no longer works with such acuteness
and logical precision; more especially does it fail me in trying to
establish the syntax of the difficult Makua language on which I have
ventured, as if I had not enough to do without it. Under the
circumstances it seems advisable to take my temperature, and I do
so, to save trouble, without leaving my seat, and while going on with
my work. On examination, I find it to be 101·48°. My tutors are
abruptly dismissed and my bed set up in the baraza; a few minutes
later I am in it and treating myself internally with hot water and
lemon-juice.
Three hours later, the thermometer marks nearly 104°, and I make
them carry me back into the tent, bed and all, as I am now perspiring
heavily, and exposure to the cold wind just beginning to blow might
mean a fatal chill. I lie still for a little while, and then find, to my
great relief, that the temperature is not rising, but rather falling. This
is about 7.30 p.m. At 8 p.m. I find, to my unbounded astonishment,
that it has fallen below 98·6°, and I feel perfectly well. I read for an
hour or two, and could very well enjoy a smoke, if I had the
wherewithal—Indian cigars being out of the question.
Having no medical training, I am at a loss to account for this state
of things. It is impossible that these transitory attacks of high fever
should be malarial; it seems more probable that they are due to a
kind of sunstroke. On consulting my note-book, I become more and
more inclined to think this is the case, for these attacks regularly
follow extreme fatigue and long exposure to strong sunshine. They at
least have the advantage of being only short interruptions to my
work, as on the following morning I am always quite fresh and fit.
My treasure of a cook is suffering from an enormous hydrocele which
makes it difficult for him to get up, and Moritz is obliged to keep in
the dark on account of his inflamed eyes. Knudsen’s cook, a raw boy
from somewhere in the bush, knows still less of cooking than Omari;
consequently Nils Knudsen himself has been promoted to the vacant
post. Finding that we had come to the end of our supplies, he began
by sending to Chingulungulu for the four sucking-pigs which we had
bought from Matola and temporarily left in his charge; and when
they came up, neatly packed in a large crate, he callously slaughtered
the biggest of them. The first joint we were thoughtless enough to
entrust for roasting to Knudsen’s mshenzi cook, and it was
consequently uneatable; but we made the rest of the animal into a
jelly which we ate with great relish after weeks of underfeeding,
consuming incredible helpings of it at both midday and evening
meals. The only drawback is a certain want of variety in the tinned
vegetables. Dr. Jäger, to whom the Geographical Commission
entrusted the provisioning of the expeditions—mine as well as his
own—because he had more time on his hands than the rest of us,
seems to have laid in a huge stock of Teltow turnips,[46] an article of
food which is all very well for occasional use, but which quickly palls
when set before one every day; and we seem to have no other tins
left. There is no help for it—we must put up with the turnips; but I
am certain that, once I am home again, I shall not touch them for ten
years to come.
Amid all these minor evils, which, after all, go to make up the
genuine flavour of Africa, there is at least one cheering touch:
Knudsen has, with the dexterity of a skilled mechanic, repaired my 9
× 12 cm. camera, at least so far that I can use it with a little care.
How, in the absence of finger-nails, he was able to accomplish such a
ticklish piece of work, having no tool but a clumsy screw-driver for
taking to pieces and putting together again the complicated
mechanism of the instantaneous shutter, is still a mystery to me; but
he did it successfully. The loss of his finger-nails shows him in a light
contrasting curiously enough with the intelligence evinced by the
above operation; though, after all, it is scarcely surprising after his
ten years’ residence in the bush. One day, at Lindi, he had occasion
to wash a dog, which must have been in need of very thorough
cleansing, for the bottle handed to our friend for the purpose had an
extremely strong smell. Having performed his task in the most
conscientious manner, he perceived with some surprise that the dog
did not appear much the better for it, and was further surprised by
finding his own nails ulcerating away in the course of the next few
days. “How was I to know that carbolic acid has to be diluted?” he
mutters indignantly, from time to time, with a troubled gaze at his
mutilated finger-tips.
 Since we came to Newala we have been making excursions in all
directions through the surrounding country, in accordance with old
habit, and also because the akida Sefu did not get together the tribal
elders from whom I wanted information so speedily as he had
promised. There is, however, no harm done, as, even if seen only
from the outside, the country and people are interesting enough.
The Makonde plateau is like a large rectangular table rounded off
at the corners. Measured from the Indian Ocean to Newala, it is
about seventy-five miles long, and between the Rovuma and the
Lukuledi it averages fifty miles in breadth, so that its superficial area
is about two-thirds of that of the kingdom of Saxony. The surface,
however, is not level, but uniformly inclined from its south-western
edge to the ocean. From the upper edge, on which Newala lies, the
eye ranges for many miles east and north-east, without encountering
any obstacle, over the Makonde bush. It is a green sea, from which
here and there thick clouds of smoke rise, to show that it, too, is
inhabited by men who carry on their tillage like so many other
primitive peoples, by cutting down and burning the bush, and
manuring with the ashes. Even in the radiant light of a tropical day
such a fire is a grand sight.
Much less effective is the impression produced just now by the
great western plain as seen from the edge of the plateau. As often as
time permits, I stroll along this edge, sometimes in one direction,
sometimes in another, in the hope of finding the air clear enough to
let me enjoy the view; but I have always been disappointed.
Wherever one looks, clouds of smoke rise from the burning bush,
and the air is full of smoke and vapour. It is a pity, for under more
favourable circumstances the panorama of the whole country up to
the distant Majeje hills must be truly magnificent. It is of little use
taking photographs now, and an outline sketch gives a very poor idea
of the scenery. In one of these excursions I went out of my way to
make a personal attempt on the Makonde bush. The present edge of
the plateau is the result of a far-reaching process of destruction
through erosion and denudation. The Makonde strata are
everywhere cut into by ravines, which, though short, are hundreds of
yards in depth. In consequence of the loose stratification of these
beds, not only are the walls of these ravines nearly vertical, but their
upper end is closed by an equally steep escarpment, so that the
western edge of the Makonde plateau is hemmed in by a series of
deep, basin-like valleys. In order to get from one side of such a ravine
to the other, I cut my way through the bush with a dozen of my men.
It was a very open part, with more grass than scrub, but even so the
short stretch of less than two hundred yards was very hard work; at
the end of it the men’s calicoes were in rags and they themselves
bleeding from hundreds of scratches, while even our strong khaki
suits had not escaped scatheless.

NATIVE PATH THROUGH THE MAKONDE BUSH, NEAR

MAHUTA

I see increasing reason to believe that the view formed some time
back as to the origin of the Makonde bush is the correct one. I have
no doubt that it is not a natural product, but the result of human
occupation. Those parts of the high country where man—as a very
slight amount of practice enables the eye to perceive at once—has not
yet penetrated with axe and hoe, are still occupied by a splendid
timber forest quite able to sustain a comparison with our mixed
forests in Germany. But wherever man has once built his hut or tilled
his field, this horrible bush springs up. Every phase of this process
may be seen in the course of a couple of hours’ walk along the main
road. From the bush to right or left, one hears the sound of the axe—
not from one spot only, but from several directions at once. A few
steps further on, we can see what is taking place. The brush has been
cut down and piled up in heaps to the height of a yard or more,
between which the trunks of the large trees stand up like the last
pillars of a magnificent ruined building. These, too, present a
melancholy spectacle: the destructive Makonde have ringed them—
cut a broad strip of bark all round to ensure their dying off—and also
piled up pyramids of brush round them. Father and son, mother and
son-in-law, are chopping away perseveringly in the background—too
busy, almost, to look round at the white stranger, who usually excites
so much interest. If you pass by the same place a week later, the piles
of brushwood have disappeared and a thick layer of ashes has taken
the place of the green forest. The large trees stretch their
smouldering trunks and branches in dumb accusation to heaven—if
they have not already fallen and been more or less reduced to ashes,
perhaps only showing as a white stripe on the dark ground.
This work of destruction is carried out by the Makonde alike on the
virgin forest and on the bush which has sprung up on sites already
cultivated and deserted. In the second case they are saved the trouble
of burning the large trees, these being entirely absent in the
secondary bush.
After burning this piece of forest ground and loosening it with the
hoe, the native sows his corn and plants his vegetables. All over the
country, he goes in for bed-culture, which requires, and, in fact,
receives, the most careful attention. Weeds are nowhere tolerated in
the south of German East Africa. The crops may fail on the plains,
where droughts are frequent, but never on the plateau with its
abundant rains and heavy dews. Its fortunate inhabitants even have
the satisfaction of seeing the proud Wayao and Wamakua working
for them as labourers, driven by hunger to serve where they were
accustomed to rule.
But the light, sandy soil is soon exhausted, and would yield no
harvest the second year if cultivated twice running. This fact has
been familiar to the native for ages; consequently he provides in
time, and, while his crop is growing, prepares the next plot with axe
and firebrand. Next year he plants this with his various crops and
lets the first piece lie fallow. For a short time it remains waste and
desolate; then nature steps in to repair the destruction wrought by
man; a thousand new growths spring out of the exhausted soil, and
even the old stumps put forth fresh shoots. Next year the new growth
is up to one’s knees, and in a few years more it is that terrible,
impenetrable bush, which maintains its position till the black
occupier of the land has made the round of all the available sites and
come back to his starting point.
The Makonde are, body and soul, so to speak, one with this bush.
According to my Yao informants, indeed, their name means nothing
else but “bush people.” Their own tradition says that they have been
settled up here for a very long time, but to my surprise they laid great
stress on an original immigration. Their old homes were in the
south-east, near Mikindani and the mouth of the Rovuma, whence
their peaceful forefathers were driven by the continual raids of the
Sakalavas from Madagascar and the warlike Shirazis[47] of the coast,
to take refuge on the almost inaccessible plateau. I have studied
African ethnology for twenty years, but the fact that changes of
population in this apparently quiet and peaceable corner of the earth
could have been occasioned by outside enterprises taking place on
the high seas, was completely new to me. It is, no doubt, however,
correct.
The charming tribal legend of the Makonde—besides informing us
of other interesting matters—explains why they have to live in the
thickest of the bush and a long way from the edge of the plateau,
instead of making their permanent homes beside the purling brooks
and springs of the low country.
“The place where the tribe originated is Mahuta, on the southern
side of the plateau towards the Rovuma, where of old time there was
nothing but thick bush. Out of this bush came a man who never
washed himself or shaved his head, and who ate and drank but little.
He went out and made a human figure from the wood of a tree
growing in the open country, which he took home to his abode in the
bush and there set it upright. In the night this image came to life and
was a woman. The man and woman went down together to the
Rovuma to wash themselves. Here the woman gave birth to a still-
born child. They left that place and passed over the high land into the
valley of the Mbemkuru, where the woman had another child, which
was also born dead. Then they returned to the high bush country of
Mahuta, where the third child was born, which lived and grew up. In
course of time, the couple had many more children, and called
themselves Wamatanda. These were the ancestral stock of the
Makonde, also called Wamakonde,[48] i.e., aborigines. Their
forefather, the man from the bush, gave his children the command to
bury their dead upright, in memory of the mother of their race who
was cut out of wood and awoke to life when standing upright. He also
warned them against settling in the valleys and near large streams,
for sickness and death dwelt there. They were to make it a rule to
have their huts at least an hour’s walk from the nearest watering-
place; then their children would thrive and escape illness.”
The explanation of the name Makonde given by my informants is
somewhat different from that contained in the above legend, which I
extract from a little book (small, but packed with information), by
Pater Adams, entitled Lindi und sein Hinterland. Otherwise, my
results agree exactly with the statements of the legend. Washing?
Hapana—there is no such thing. Why should they do so? As it is, the
supply of water scarcely suffices for cooking and drinking; other
people do not wash, so why should the Makonde distinguish himself
by such needless eccentricity? As for shaving the head, the short,
woolly crop scarcely needs it,[49] so the second ancestral precept is
likewise easy enough to follow. Beyond this, however, there is
nothing ridiculous in the ancestor’s advice. I have obtained from
various local artists a fairly large number of figures carved in wood,
ranging from fifteen to twenty-three inches in height, and
representing women belonging to the great group of the Mavia,
Makonde, and Matambwe tribes. The carving is remarkably well
done and renders the female type with great accuracy, especially the
keloid ornamentation, to be described later on. As to the object and
meaning of their works the sculptors either could or (more probably)
would tell me nothing, and I was forced to content myself with the
scanty information vouchsafed by one man, who said that the figures
were merely intended to represent the nembo—the artificial
deformations of pelele, ear-discs, and keloids. The legend recorded
by Pater Adams places these figures in a new light. They must surely
be more than mere dolls; and we may even venture to assume that
they are—though the majority of present-day Makonde are probably
unaware of the fact—representations of the tribal ancestress.
 The references in the legend to the descent from Mahuta to the
Rovuma, and to a journey across the highlands into the Mbekuru
valley, undoubtedly indicate the previous history of the tribe, the
travels of the ancestral pair typifying the migrations of their
descendants. The descent to the neighbouring Rovuma valley, with
its extraordinary fertility and great abundance of game, is intelligible
at a glance—but the crossing of the Lukuledi depression, the ascent
to the Rondo Plateau and the descent to the Mbemkuru, also lie
within the bounds of probability, for all these districts have exactly
the same character as the extreme south. Now, however, comes a
point of especial interest for our bacteriological age. The primitive
Makonde did not enjoy their lives in the marshy river-valleys.
Disease raged among them, and many died. It was only after they
had returned to their original home near Mahuta, that the health
conditions of these people improved. We are very apt to think of the
African as a stupid person whose ignorance of nature is only equalled
by his fear of it, and who looks on all mishaps as caused by evil
spirits and malignant natural powers. It is much more correct to
assume in this case that the people very early learnt to distinguish
districts infested with malaria from those where it is absent.
This knowledge is crystallized in the
ancestral warning against settling in the
valleys and near the great waters, the
dwelling-places of disease and death. At the
same time, for security against the hostile
Mavia south of the Rovuma, it was enacted
that every settlement must be not less than a
certain distance from the southern edge of the
plateau. Such in fact is their mode of life at the
present day. It is not such a bad one, and
certainly they are both safer and more
comfortable than the Makua, the recent
intruders from the south, who have made USUAL METHOD OF
good their footing on the western edge of the CLOSING HUT-DOOR
plateau, extending over a fairly wide belt of
country. Neither Makua nor Makonde show in their dwellings
anything of the size and comeliness of the Yao houses in the plain,
especially at Masasi, Chingulungulu and Zuza’s. Jumbe Chauro, a
Makonde hamlet not far from Newala, on the road to Mahuta, is the
most important settlement of the tribe I have yet seen, and has fairly
spacious huts. But how slovenly is their construction compared with
the palatial residences of the elephant-hunters living in the plain.
The roofs are still more untidy than in the general run of huts during
the dry season, the walls show here and there the scanty beginnings
or the lamentable remains of the mud plastering, and the interior is a
veritable dog-kennel; dirt, dust and disorder everywhere. A few huts
only show any attempt at division into rooms, and this consists
merely of very roughly-made bamboo partitions. In one point alone
have I noticed any indication of progress—in the method of fastening
the door. Houses all over the south are secured in a simple but
ingenious manner. The door consists of a set of stout pieces of wood
or bamboo, tied with bark-string to two cross-pieces, and moving in
two grooves round one of the door-posts, so as to open inwards. If
the owner wishes to leave home, he takes two logs as thick as a man’s
upper arm and about a yard long. One of these is placed obliquely
against the middle of the door from the inside, so as to form an angle
of from 60° to 75° with the ground. He then places the second piece
horizontally across the first, pressing it downward with all his might.
It is kept in place by two strong posts planted in the ground a few
inches inside the door. This fastening is absolutely safe, but of course
cannot be applied to both doors at once, otherwise how could the
owner leave or enter his house? I have not yet succeeded in finding
out how the back door is fastened.

MAKONDE LOCK AND KEY AT JUMBE CHAURO

 This is the general way of closing a house. The Makonde at Jumbe
Chauro, however, have a much more complicated, solid and original
one. Here, too, the door is as already described, except that there is
only one post on the inside, standing by itself about six inches from
one side of the doorway. Opposite this post is a hole in the wall just
large enough to admit a man’s arm. The door is closed inside by a
large wooden bolt passing through a hole in this post and pressing
with its free end against the door. The other end has three holes into
which fit three pegs running in vertical grooves inside the post. The
door is opened with a wooden key about a foot long, somewhat
curved and sloped off at the butt; the other end has three pegs
corresponding to the holes, in the bolt, so that, when it is thrust
through the hole in the wall and inserted into the rectangular
opening in the post, the pegs can be lifted and the bolt drawn out.[50]

MODE OF INSERTING THE KEY

With no small pride first one householder and then a second

showed me on the spot the action of this greatest invention of the
Makonde Highlands. To both with an admiring exclamation of
“Vizuri sana!” (“Very fine!”). I expressed the wish to take back these
marvels with me to Ulaya, to show the Wazungu what clever fellows
the Makonde are. Scarcely five minutes after my return to camp at
Newala, the two men came up sweating under the weight of two
heavy logs which they laid down at my feet, handing over at the same
time the keys of the fallen fortress. Arguing, logically enough, that if
the key was wanted, the lock would be wanted with it, they had taken
their axes and chopped down the posts—as it never occurred to them
to dig them out of the ground and so bring them intact. Thus I have
two badly damaged specimens, and the owners, instead of praise,
come in for a blowing-up.
The Makua huts in the environs of Newala are especially
miserable; their more than slovenly construction reminds one of the
temporary erections of the Makua at Hatia’s, though the people here
have not been concerned in a war. It must therefore be due to
congenital idleness, or else to the absence of a powerful chief. Even
the baraza at Mlipa’s, a short hour’s walk south-east of Newala,
shares in this general neglect. While public buildings in this country
are usually looked after more or less carefully, this is in evident
danger of being blown over by the first strong easterly gale. The only
attractive object in this whole district is the grave of the late chief
Mlipa. I visited it in the morning, while the sun was still trying with
partial success to break through the rolling mists, and the circular
grove of tall euphorbias, which, with a broken pot, is all that marks
the old king’s resting-place, impressed one with a touch of pathos.
Even my very materially-minded carriers seemed to feel something
of the sort, for instead of their usual ribald songs, they chanted
solemnly, as we marched on through the dense green of the Makonde
bush:—
 “We shall arrive with the great master; we stand in a row and have
no fear about getting our food and our money from the Serkali (the
Government). We are not afraid; we are going along with the great
master, the lion; we are going down to the coast and back.”
With regard to the characteristic features of the various tribes here
on the western edge of the plateau, I can arrive at no other
conclusion than the one already come to in the plain, viz., that it is
impossible for anyone but a trained anthropologist to assign any
given individual at once to his proper tribe. In fact, I think that even
an anthropological specialist, after the most careful examination,
might find it a difficult task to decide. The whole congeries of peoples
collected in the region bounded on the west by the great Central
African rift, Tanganyika and Nyasa, and on the east by the Indian
Ocean, are closely related to each other—some of their languages are
only distinguished from one another as dialects of the same speech,
and no doubt all the tribes present the same shape of skull and
structure of skeleton. Thus, surely, there can be no very striking
differences in outward appearance.
 Even did such exist, I should have no time
to concern myself with them, for day after day,
I have to see or hear, as the case may be—in
any case to grasp and record—an
extraordinary number of ethnographic
phenomena. I am almost disposed to think it
fortunate that some departments of inquiry, at
least, are barred by external circumstances.
Chief among these is the subject of iron-
working. We are apt to think of Africa as a
country where iron ore is everywhere, so to
speak, to be picked up by the roadside, and
where it would be quite surprising if the
inhabitants had not learnt to smelt the
material ready to their hand. In fact, the
knowledge of this art ranges all over the
continent, from the Kabyles in the north to the
Kafirs in the south. Here between the Rovuma
and the Lukuledi the conditions are not so
favourable. According to the statements of the
Makonde, neither ironstone nor any other
form of iron ore is known to them. They have
not therefore advanced to the art of smelting
the metal, but have hitherto bought all their
THE ANCESTRESS OF
THE MAKONDE
iron implements from neighbouring tribes.
Even in the plain the inhabitants are not much
better off. Only one man now living is said to
understand the art of smelting iron. This old fundi lives close to
Huwe, that isolated, steep-sided block of granite which rises out of
the green solitude between Masasi and Chingulungulu, and whose
jagged and splintered top meets the traveller’s eye everywhere. While
still at Masasi I wished to see this man at work, but was told that,
frightened by the rising, he had retired across the Rovuma, though
he would soon return. All subsequent inquiries as to whether the
fundi had come back met with the genuine African answer, “Bado”
(“Not yet”).
 BRAZIER

Some consolation was afforded me by a brassfounder, whom I

came across in the bush near Akundonde’s. This man is the favourite
of women, and therefore no doubt of the gods; he welds the glittering
brass rods purchased at the coast into those massive, heavy rings
which, on the wrists and ankles of the local fair ones, continually give
me fresh food for admiration. Like every decent master-craftsman he
had all his tools with him, consisting of a pair of bellows, three
crucibles and a hammer—nothing more, apparently. He was quite
willing to show his skill, and in a twinkling had fixed his bellows on
the ground. They are simply two goat-skins, taken off whole, the four
legs being closed by knots, while the upper opening, intended to
admit the air, is kept stretched by two pieces of wood. At the lower
end of the skin a smaller opening is left into which a wooden tube is
stuck. The fundi has quickly borrowed a heap of wood-embers from
the nearest hut; he then fixes the free ends of the two tubes into an
earthen pipe, and clamps them to the ground by means of a bent
piece of wood. Now he fills one of his small clay crucibles, the dross
on which shows that they have been long in use, with the yellow
material, places it in the midst of the embers, which, at present are
only faintly glimmering, and begins his work. In quick alternation
the smith’s two hands move up and down with the open ends of the
bellows; as he raises his hand he holds the slit wide open, so as to let
the air enter the skin bag unhindered. In pressing it down he closes
the bag, and the air puffs through the bamboo tube and clay pipe into
the fire, which quickly burns up. The smith, however, does not keep
on with this work, but beckons to another man, who relieves him at
the bellows, while he takes some more tools out of a large skin pouch
carried on his back. I look on in wonder as, with a smooth round
stick about the thickness of a finger, he bores a few vertical holes into
the clean sand of the soil. This should not be difficult, yet the man
seems to be taking great pains over it. Then he fastens down to the
ground, with a couple of wooden clamps, a neat little trough made by
splitting a joint of bamboo in half, so that the ends are closed by the
two knots. At last the yellow metal has attained the right consistency,
and the fundi lifts the crucible from the fire by means of two sticks
split at the end to serve as tongs. A short swift turn to the left—a
tilting of the crucible—and the molten brass, hissing and giving forth
clouds of smoke, flows first into the bamboo mould and then into the
holes in the ground.
The technique of this backwoods craftsman may not be very far
advanced, but it cannot be denied that he knows how to obtain an
adequate result by the simplest means. The ladies of highest rank in
this country—that is to say, those who can afford it, wear two kinds
of these massive brass rings, one cylindrical, the other semicircular
in section. The latter are cast in the most ingenious way in the
bamboo mould, the former in the circular hole in the sand. It is quite
a simple matter for the fundi to fit these bars to the limbs of his fair
customers; with a few light strokes of his hammer he bends the
pliable brass round arm or ankle without further inconvenience to
the wearer.
SHAPING THE POT

SMOOTHING WITH MAIZE-COB

CUTTING THE EDGE

 FINISHING THE BOTTOM

LAST SMOOTHING BEFORE

BURNING

FIRING THE BRUSH-PILE

 LIGHTING THE FARTHER SIDE OF
THE PILE

TURNING THE RED-HOT VESSEL

NYASA WOMAN MAKING POTS AT MASASI

Pottery is an art which must always and everywhere excite the
interest of the student, just because it is so intimately connected with
the development of human culture, and because its relics are one of
the principal factors in the reconstruction of our own condition in
prehistoric times. I shall always remember with pleasure the two or
three afternoons at Masasi when Salim Matola’s mother, a slightly-
built, graceful, pleasant-looking woman, explained to me with
touching patience, by means of concrete illustrations, the ceramic art
of her people. The only implements for this primitive process were a
lump of clay in her left hand, and in the right a calabash containing
the following valuables: the fragment of a maize-cob stripped of all
its grains, a smooth, oval pebble, about the size of a pigeon’s egg, a
few chips of gourd-shell, a bamboo splinter about the length of one’s
hand, a small shell, and a bunch of some herb resembling spinach.
 Nothing more. The woman scraped with the
shell a round, shallow hole in the soft, fine
sand of the soil, and, when an active young
girl had filled the calabash with water for her,
she began to knead the clay. As if by magic it
gradually assumed the shape of a rough but
already well-shaped vessel, which only wanted
a little touching up with the instruments
before mentioned. I looked out with the
MAKUA WOMAN closest attention for any indication of the use
MAKING A POT. of the potter’s wheel, in however rudimentary
SHOWS THE a form, but no—hapana (there is none). The
BEGINNINGS OF THE embryo pot stood firmly in its little
POTTER’S WHEEL
depression, and the woman walked round it in
a stooping posture, whether she was removing
small stones or similar foreign bodies with the maize-cob, smoothing
the inner or outer surface with the splinter of bamboo, or later, after
letting it dry for a day, pricking in the ornamentation with a pointed
bit of gourd-shell, or working out the bottom, or cutting the edge
with a sharp bamboo knife, or giving the last touches to the finished
vessel. This occupation of the women is infinitely toilsome, but it is
without doubt an accurate reproduction of the process in use among
our ancestors of the Neolithic and Bronze ages.
There is no doubt that the invention of pottery, an item in human
progress whose importance cannot be over-estimated, is due to
women. Rough, coarse and unfeeling, the men of the horde range
over the countryside. When the united cunning of the hunters has
succeeded in killing the game; not one of them thinks of carrying
home the spoil. A bright fire, kindled by a vigorous wielding of the
drill, is crackling beside them; the animal has been cleaned and cut
up secundum artem, and, after a slight singeing, will soon disappear
under their sharp teeth; no one all this time giving a single thought
to wife or child.
To what shifts, on the other hand, the primitive wife, and still more
the primitive mother, was put! Not even prehistoric stomachs could
endure an unvarying diet of raw food. Something or other suggested
the beneficial effect of hot water on the majority of approved but
indigestible dishes. Perhaps a neighbour had tried holding the hard
roots or tubers over the fire in a calabash filled with water—or maybe
an ostrich-egg-shell, or a hastily improvised vessel of bark. They
became much softer and more palatable than they had previously
been; but, unfortunately, the vessel could not stand the fire and got
charred on the outside. That can be remedied, thought our
ancestress, and plastered a layer of wet clay round a similar vessel.
This is an improvement; the cooking utensil remains uninjured, but
the heat of the fire has shrunk it, so that it is loose in its shell. The
next step is to detach it, so, with a firm grip and a jerk, shell and
kernel are separated, and pottery is invented. Perhaps, however, the
discovery which led to an intelligent use of the burnt-clay shell, was
made in a slightly different way. Ostrich-eggs and calabashes are not
to be found in every part of the world, but everywhere mankind has
arrived at the art of making baskets out of pliant materials, such as
bark, bast, strips of palm-leaf, supple twigs, etc. Our inventor has no
water-tight vessel provided by nature. “Never mind, let us line the
basket with clay.” This answers the purpose, but alas! the basket gets
burnt over the blazing fire, the woman watches the process of
cooking with increasing uneasiness, fearing a leak, but no leak
appears. The food, done to a turn, is eaten with peculiar relish; and
the cooking-vessel is examined, half in curiosity, half in satisfaction
at the result. The plastic clay is now hard as stone, and at the same
time looks exceedingly well, for the neat plaiting of the burnt basket
is traced all over it in a pretty pattern. Thus, simultaneously with
pottery, its ornamentation was invented.
Primitive woman has another claim to respect. It was the man,
roving abroad, who invented the art of producing fire at will, but the
woman, unable to imitate him in this, has been a Vestal from the
earliest times. Nothing gives so much trouble as the keeping alight of
the smouldering brand, and, above all, when all the men are absent
from the camp. Heavy rain-clouds gather, already the first large
drops are falling, the first gusts of the storm rage over the plain. The
little flame, a greater anxiety to the woman than her own children,
flickers unsteadily in the blast. What is to be done? A sudden thought
occurs to her, and in an instant she has constructed a primitive hut
out of strips of bark, to protect the flame against rain and wind.
This, or something very like it, was the way in which the principle
of the house was discovered; and even the most hardened misogynist
cannot fairly refuse a woman the credit of it. The protection of the
hearth-fire from the weather is the germ from which the human
dwelling was evolved. Men had little, if any share, in this forward
step, and that only at a late stage. Even at the present day, the
plastering of the housewall with clay and the manufacture of pottery
are exclusively the women’s business. These are two very significant
survivals. Our European kitchen-garden, too, is originally a woman’s
invention, and the hoe, the primitive instrument of agriculture, is,
characteristically enough, still used in this department. But the
noblest achievement which we owe to the other sex is unquestionably
the art of cookery. Roasting alone—the oldest process—is one for
which men took the hint (a very obvious one) from nature. It must
have been suggested by the scorched carcase of some animal
overtaken by the destructive forest-fires. But boiling—the process of
improving organic substances by the help of water heated to boiling-
point—is a much later discovery. It is so recent that it has not even
yet penetrated to all parts of the world. The Polynesians understand
how to steam food, that is, to cook it, neatly wrapped in leaves, in a
hole in the earth between hot stones, the air being excluded, and
(sometimes) a few drops of water sprinkled on the stones; but they
do not understand boiling.
To come back from this digression, we find that the slender Nyasa
woman has, after once more carefully examining the finished pot,
put it aside in the shade to dry. On the following day she sends me
word by her son, Salim Matola, who is always on hand, that she is
going to do the burning, and, on coming out of my house, I find her
already hard at work. She has spread on the ground a layer of very
dry sticks, about as thick as one’s thumb, has laid the pot (now of a
yellowish-grey colour) on them, and is piling brushwood round it.
My faithful Pesa mbili, the mnyampara, who has been standing by,
most obligingly, with a lighted stick, now hands it to her. Both of
them, blowing steadily, light the pile on the lee side, and, when the
flame begins to catch, on the weather side also. Soon the whole is in a
blaze, but the dry fuel is quickly consumed and the fire dies down, so
that we see the red-hot vessel rising from the ashes. The woman
turns it continually with a long stick, sometimes one way and
sometimes another, so that it may be evenly heated all over. In
twenty minutes she rolls it out of the ash-heap, takes up the bundle
of spinach, which has been lying for two days in a jar of water, and
sprinkles the red-hot clay with it. The places where the drops fall are
marked by black spots on the uniform reddish-brown surface. With a
sigh of relief, and with visible satisfaction, the woman rises to an
erect position; she is standing just in a line between me and the fire,
from which a cloud of smoke is just rising: I press the ball of my
camera, the shutter clicks—the apotheosis is achieved! Like a
priestess, representative of her inventive sex, the graceful woman
stands: at her feet the hearth-fire she has given us beside her the
invention she has devised for us, in the background the home she has
built for us.
At Newala, also, I have had the manufacture of pottery carried on
in my presence. Technically the process is better than that already
described, for here we find the beginnings of the potter’s wheel,
which does not seem to exist in the plains; at least I have seen
nothing of the sort. The artist, a frightfully stupid Makua woman, did
not make a depression in the ground to receive the pot she was about
to shape, but used instead a large potsherd. Otherwise, she went to
work in much the same way as Salim’s mother, except that she saved
herself the trouble of walking round and round her work by squatting
at her ease and letting the pot and potsherd rotate round her; this is
surely the first step towards a machine. But it does not follow that
the pot was improved by the process. It is true that it was beautifully
rounded and presented a very creditable appearance when finished,
but the numerous large and small vessels which I have seen, and, in
part, collected, in the “less advanced” districts, are no less so. We
moderns imagine that instruments of precision are necessary to
produce excellent results. Go to the prehistoric collections of our
museums and look at the pots, urns and bowls of our ancestors in the
dim ages of the past, and you will at once perceive your error.
MAKING LONGITUDINAL CUT IN
BARK

DRAWING THE BARK OFF THE LOG

REMOVING THE OUTER BARK

 BEATING THE BARK

WORKING THE BARK-CLOTH AFTER BEATING, TO MAKE IT

SOFT

MANUFACTURE OF BARK-CLOTH AT NEWALA

To-day, nearly the whole population of German East Africa is
clothed in imported calico. This was not always the case; even now in
some parts of the north dressed skins are still the prevailing wear,
and in the north-western districts—east and north of Lake
Tanganyika—lies a zone where bark-cloth has not yet been
superseded. Probably not many generations have passed since such
bark fabrics and kilts of skins were the only clothing even in the
south. Even to-day, large quantities of this bright-red or drab
material are still to be found; but if we wish to see it, we must look in
the granaries and on the drying stages inside the native huts, where
it serves less ambitious uses as wrappings for those seeds and fruits
which require to be packed with special care. The salt produced at
Masasi, too, is packed for transport to a distance in large sheets of
bark-cloth. Wherever I found it in any degree possible, I studied the
process of making this cloth. The native requisitioned for the
purpose arrived, carrying a log between two and three yards long and
as thick as his thigh, and nothing else except a curiously-shaped
mallet and the usual long, sharp and pointed knife which all men and
boys wear in a belt at their backs without a sheath—horribile dictu!
[51]
Silently he squats down before me, and with two rapid cuts has
drawn a couple of circles round the log some two yards apart, and
slits the bark lengthwise between them with the point of his knife.
With evident care, he then scrapes off the outer rind all round the
log, so that in a quarter of an hour the inner red layer of the bark
shows up brightly-coloured between the two untouched ends. With
some trouble and much caution, he now loosens the bark at one end,
and opens the cylinder. He then stands up, takes hold of the free
edge with both hands, and turning it inside out, slowly but steadily
pulls it off in one piece. Now comes the troublesome work of
scraping all superfluous particles of outer bark from the outside of
the long, narrow piece of material, while the inner side is carefully
scrutinised for defective spots. At last it is ready for beating. Having
signalled to a friend, who immediately places a bowl of water beside
him, the artificer damps his sheet of bark all over, seizes his mallet,
lays one end of the stuff on the smoothest spot of the log, and
hammers away slowly but continuously. “Very simple!” I think to
myself. “Why, I could do that, too!”—but I am forced to change my
opinions a little later on; for the beating is quite an art, if the fabric is
not to be beaten to pieces. To prevent the breaking of the fibres, the
stuff is several times folded across, so as to interpose several
thicknesses between the mallet and the block. At last the required
state is reached, and the fundi seizes the sheet, still folded, by both
ends, and wrings it out, or calls an assistant to take one end while he
holds the other. The cloth produced in this way is not nearly so fine
and uniform in texture as the famous Uganda bark-cloth, but it is
quite soft, and, above all, cheap.
Now, too, I examine the mallet. My craftsman has been using the
simpler but better form of this implement, a conical block of some
hard wood, its base—the striking surface—being scored across and
across with more or less deeply-cut grooves, and the handle stuck
into a hole in the middle. The other and earlier form of mallet is
shaped in the same way, but the head is fastened by an ingenious
network of bark strips into the split bamboo serving as a handle. The
observation so often made, that ancient customs persist longest in
connection with religious ceremonies and in the life of children, here
finds confirmation. As we shall soon see, bark-cloth is still worn
during the unyago,[52] having been prepared with special solemn
ceremonies; and many a mother, if she has no other garment handy,
will still put her little one into a kilt of bark-cloth, which, after all,
looks better, besides being more in keeping with its African
surroundings, than the ridiculous bit of print from Ulaya.
MAKUA WOMEN