Most common in the 19th century, it was a methodology that involved professionally-trained anthropologists bringing their informants into the living rooms of local colonial administrators and talking to them while seated in armchairs. It was more empirical than the philosophy that proceeded it but less empirical than the field-based anthropological methods that followed.

Most common in the 18th century, it was a methodology that involved professionally-trained anthropologists bringing their informants into the living rooms of local colonial administrators and talking to them while seated in armchairs It was less empirical than the philosophy that proceeded it but more empirical than the field-based anthropological methods that followed.

Most common in the 19th century, it was a methodology that involved amateur scholars corresponding with traders, missionaries, and government officials who lived near the peoples the armchair anthropologists wanted to study. It was more empirical than the philosophy that proceeded it but less empirical than the field-based anthropological methods that followed.