Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of partial statistical tables
- Preface
- 1 Introduction to statistics and simple descriptive statistics
- 2 The first step in data analysis
- 3 Probability and statistics
- 4 Hypothesis testing and estimation
- 5 The difference between two means
- 6 The analysis of variance (ANOVA)
- 7 Non-parametric tests for the comparison of samples
- 8 The analysis of frequencies
- 9 Correlation analysis
- 10 Simple linear regression
- 11 Advanced topics in regression analysis
- References
- Index
1 - Introduction to statistics and simple descriptive statistics
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 June 2012
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of partial statistical tables
- Preface
- 1 Introduction to statistics and simple descriptive statistics
- 2 The first step in data analysis
- 3 Probability and statistics
- 4 Hypothesis testing and estimation
- 5 The difference between two means
- 6 The analysis of variance (ANOVA)
- 7 Non-parametric tests for the comparison of samples
- 8 The analysis of frequencies
- 9 Correlation analysis
- 10 Simple linear regression
- 11 Advanced topics in regression analysis
- References
- Index
Summary
This chapter discusses several topics, from why statistics is important in anthropological research to statistical notation. The first section (statistics and scientific enquiry) defines basic scientific terms and explains the role of statistics in anthropological research. The second section (basic definitions) reviews the vocabulary we need for the rest of the book. The third section (statistical notation) explains the fundamentals of statistical notation.
Statistics and scientific enquiry
If you are an anthropologist, you have probably been asked what anthropology is, and what it is good for. Many of us are at a loss to explain the obvious: how else could we look at the world, but with a cross-cultural and evolutionary perspective? What you may not be quite convinced about is the need for you to include a statistical aspect to your anthropological data analysis. In this section, I hope to explain why statistics are an integral part of a scientific approach to anthropological enquiry.
- Type
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- Information
- Statistics for Anthropology , pp. 1 - 12Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2012