Most of our methodological discussion has concentrated on “the little end” – operationalizing the units or elements (variables) observed in the course of direct field research. We have focused on the more concrete observational aspects of the anthropological enterprise because these are, in our opinion, fundamental to everything that goes on in the more abstracted realms of theory building. Referring again to the diagram, the “Domain of Methodology” from Chapter 1 (Figure 11.1), we can see that most of the cases and examples in previous chapters reach up, at best, to “low-order propositions.”

Where does real theory building come in? And where are the models? How do we develop a general theory of human behavior? A general theory of cultural evolution? A model of an ecological system? Indeed, what “is” a theory beyond the bare-bones definition in Chapter 1?

Full exploration of these questions would require another book, a book with a focus somewhat different from this one. On the other hand, every piece of research has some relationship to theory, and everyone develops some explicit or implicit strategy (or set of strategies) that link day-to-day research activities to broad theoretical frameworks.