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23 February 2025

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Freelisting
and
Constrained Listing

• "The freelist technique is used to elicit the elements or members of a "cultural domain"
  
  
  • For domains that have a name or are easily described, the technique is very simple:
    just ask a set of informants to "list all the members of the domain"
    
    
  • In the Anthropology of Food class Pre-Assessment task, for example, people are asked to list "non-poisonous foods you would not eat"
    
    
    • In this case the "cultural domain" is "non-poisonous foods you would not eat"
      
      
    • And it is called a "freelisting" because the question allows you to name as many or as few foods as you want

 

• A "constrained listing" would set some limits on the list
  
  
  • for e.g., "Name ten non-poisonous foods you would not eat"
    
    

• For more information see:
  
  
  • Freelists -- Steve Borgatti
    
    
    
• For an excellent work on the application of freelisting and processing frelisting data
  see Systematic Data Collection. 1988. Weller, Susan C., and A. Kimball Romney (Newberry Park, CA).