Course Readings and Schedule
Note: All readings are either from required course texts or on reserve in the Bailey-Howe Library or the Anthropology Department office (509 Williams Hall).
Seeking tips on reading for this course? See my 'Reflections on Reading for this Anthropology Class'
Situating Ethnography
Course Introduction: What is 'Ethnography?' An 'Ethnographer?' An 'Ethnographic Description?'
Tues. 1/18: Introduction to the course, instructor's expectations, requirements, etc.
No reading
Thurs. 1/20: The Purposes of Observing and Describing
In-class 'thick description' activity
Readings: 1. Geertz, C. 'Thick Description: Toward an Interpretive Theory of Culture.' In The Interpretation of Cultures, pp. 3-30.
(Recommended) 2. Chapter 1, Ethnography: Principles in Practice, pp. 1-22.
Tues. 1/25: Fieldwork in the British and American Traditions
Readings: 1. Malinowski, B. 'Introduction: The Subject, Method and Scope of this Enquiry' Argonauts of the Western Pacific, pp. 1-25.
2. Evans-Pritchard, EE. 'Some Reminescences and Reflections on Fieldwork.' In Witchcraft, Oracles and Magic Among the Azande, pp. 239-54.
3. Mead, M. Chapters 11-12, Blackberry Winter: My Earlier Years, pp. 147-80.
Thurs. 1/27: Workshop on Field Exercise #1: Observation Exercise
Readings: 1. Miner, H. (1956) 'Body Ritual Among the Nacirema' American Anthropologist 58: 503-7.
2. Whyte, 'Observational Methods.' Learning from the Field: A Guide from Experience, pp. 83-96.
Due in class: Notes from observation exercise.
Tues. 2/1: Critiques of Ethnographic Textual Authority
Readings: 1. Clifford, J. 'Introduction: Partial Truths.' In Writing Culture, pp. 1- 26.
2. Pratt, M.L. 'Fieldwork in Common Places.' In Writing Culture, pp. 27-50.
Thurs. 2/3: Moving 'Beyond Culture' and 'Anthropologizing the West'
Reading: 1. Nader, L. (1972) 'Up the Anthropologist: Perspectives Gained from Studying Up.' In Reinventing Anthropology, Hymes, ed., pp. 284-309.
2. Gupta and Ferguson, (1992) ''Beyond Culture:' Space, Identity and the Politics of Difference.' In Culture, Power, Place: Explorations in Anthropology, pp. 131-46.
(Recommended) 3. Rabinow, 'Representations are Social Facts: Modernity and Postmodernity in Anthropology' In Writing Culture, pp. 234-61.
Due in class: Research topic for pilot ethnographic research/proposal.
Doing Ethnography
Mapping, Inscribing and Recording
Tues. 2/8: Workshop on Field Exercise #2: Mapping a Block/Public Space
Reading: 1. Kutsche, 'Map of a Block,' Field Ethnography, pp. 14-23.
2. Yang, H. (1993) 'Neighborly Strangers' In America as a Foreign Culture, pp. 112-19.
Due in class: Map of public space.
Thurs. 2/10: Designing a Research Project and Problems of Access
Reading: 1. Chapters 2-4, Ethnography: Principles in Practice, pp. 23-123.
(Recommended) 2. Delaney, C. (1988) 'Participant Observation: The Razor's Edge.' Dialectical Anthropology 13: 291-300.
Tues. 2/15: Seeing Through Pictures: Anthropology and Photography
Reading: 1. Larson, H. 'Photography that Listens' Visual Anthropology 1: 415-32.
2. Collier and Collier, 'The Challenge of Observation and the Nature of Photography.' In Visual Anthropology: Photography as a Research Method, pp. 5-13.
3. Ruby, J. (1981) 'Seeing Through Pictures: The Anthropology of Photography.' Camera Lucida.
Thurs. 2/17: Taking Fieldnotes
In-class exercise on note-taking
Reading: 1. Chapter 7, Ethnography: Principles in Practice, pp. 175-204.
(Recommended) 2. Lederman, R. 'Pretexts for Ethnography: On Reading Fieldnotes.' In Sanjek, Fieldnotes: The Makings of Anthropology, pp. 71- 91.
Tues. 2/22: Listening and Asking Questions
In-class exercise on listening and categorization
Reading: 1. Chapter 5, Ethnography: Principles in Practice, pp. 124-56.
Due in class: List of interview questions for pilot research, and tentative research plan.
The Complexities of 'Anthropologizing the West'
Thurs. 2/24: Subjectivities/Objectivities
Reading: 1. Rosaldo, R. (1989) 'Subjectivities in Social Analysis.' In Culture and Truth: The Remaking of Social Analysis, pp. 168-95.
2. Wolf, M. 'Chinanotes: Engendering Anthropology.' Fieldnotes: The Makings of Anthropology, pp. 343-55.
Tues. 2/29: Workshop on Field Exercise #3: Insider's and Outsider's Accounts
Reading: 1. Aguilar, 'Insider Research: An Ethnography of a Debate.' In Messerschmidt, ed. Anthropologists at Home in North America: Methods and Issues in the Study of One's Own Society, pp. 15-26.
Due in class: 4 page reflection paper on insider/outsider activity.
Thurs. 3/2: The Ethics of Ethnographic Research
In-class exercise
Reading: 1. Chapter 10, Ethnography: Principles in Practice, pp. 263-87.
2. AAA Code of Ethics (see links page)
Tues. 3/7: Town Meeting Day Recess (no class)
Thurs. 3/9: Experience, Translation and Power
Reading: 1. Scott, J. 'Experience.' (1992) In Feminists Theorize the Political. New York: Routledge.
2. Geertz, C. (1983) ''From the Native's Point of Vew:' On the Nature of Anthropological Understanding.' In Local Knowledge: Further Essays in Interpretive Anthropology, pp. 55-70.
3. Asad, 'The Concept of Cultural Translation in British Social Anthropology.' In Writing Culture, pp. 141-64.
Applying Qualitative Research
Tues. 3/14: 'Corporate Anthropology' (SPECIAL EVENING CLASS, details TBA)
Guest Speaker from Action Research
Reading: 1. Laabs, J. (1992) 'Profile of an Anthropologist: Corporate Anthropologists.' In Applying Cultural Anthropology: An Introductory Reader, pp. 24-30.
Thurs. 3/16: Problems of Applied and Participatory Research
Reading: 1. Wilson, R. (1998) 'The Role of Anthropologists as Short-term Consultants.' Human Organization 57(2).
2. Chambers, R. (1994) 'The Origins and Practice of Participatory Rural Appraisal' World Development 22(7): 953-69.
Tues. 3/21-Thurs.3/23: Spring Break (no class)
Writing Ethnography
Analysis and Representation
Tues. 3/28: Ethnographic Writing and its Uses
Reading: 1. Clifford, 'On Ethnographic Allegory.' In Writing Culture, pp. 98-121.
2. Marcus, 'Appendix' and 'Afterword.' In Writing Culture, pp. 189-93, 262-6.
3. Chapter 9, Ethnography: Principles in Practice, pp. 239-62.
Thurs. 3/30: Constructing Analyses
Reading: 1. Chapter 8, Ethnography: Principles in Practice, pp. 205-38.
Bring to class: Raw fieldnotes.
Experimenting with Genre
Tues. 4/4-Thurs. 4/6: Wolf, A Thrice-Told Tale, read whole book.
Translating Life Stories
Tues. 4/11-Thurs. 4/13: The Genre of Life History
Reading: 1. Behar, Introduction, Parts One and Two, Translated Woman, pp. 1-222
(Note: We will break up reading assignments ahead of time so that you will be only reading a part of these two sections).
Tues. 4/18-Thurs. 4/20: The Politics and Poetics of Representation
Reading: Behar, Parts Three and Four, Translated Woman, pp. 226-342.
(Note: Everyone should read Part Three, and we will break up reading assignments for Part 4 ahead of time.)
Course Conclusion: The Futures of Ethnographic Method and Representation
Tues. 4/25: Towards an Ethnography of Power and Everyday Life, Part 1
Reading: 1. Fischer, M.J. (1991) 'Anthropology as Cultural Critique: Inserts for the 1990s' Cultural Anthropology 6(4): 525-37.
Thurs. 4/27: Towards an Ethnography of Power and Everyday Life, Part 2
Reading: 1. Kuklik, H. (1997) 'After Ishmael: The Fieldwork Tradition and its Future.' In Gupta and Ferguson, eds. Anthropological Locations: Boundaries and Grounds for a Field Science, pp. 47-65.
Tues. 5/2: Conclusion
Final Project due Monday May 8 by 12:00 noon in the Anthropology Office, 509 Williams Hall