Thee Ethnographer's Craft
                                                                      Anthropology 335
                                                                            Fall 2000

Charles V. Carnegie        Office Hours
157 Pettengill Hall        M 3:00 - 4:00
e-mail: ccarnegi / phone: 6079      Th 4:00 - 6:00

Ethnography -- both as a set of methodological, and textual practices -- is central to the discipline of anthropology.  The seminar focuses simultaneously on the doing and on the reading of ethnography.  Students carry out a semester-long fieldwork project of their own, with benefit of helpful discussion from others in the seminar.  We also engage a selection ethnographic texts, and critical essays about how ethnography has been produced.  Together, these point to changes in the conventions of anthropological research, and the genre of ethnographic writing from the first half of the twentieth century to the present.  Attention is devoted to such issues as the narrative techniques employed in ethnographic accounts, political questions of representation, and ethical concerns in doing anthropological research.

Students are expected to attend regularly and to participate fully in the seminar.  You should decide on a topic for your field research, discuss it with me, have it approved, and turn in a written proposal (approximately two typed, double-spaced pages long plus bibliography) by September 21, and begin your research before the end of September.  Fieldwork is a time-consuming process and, to be done well, requires steady and consistent effort spread over the course of the project.  To help you keep on track, you should keep a fieldwork log, starting after your proposal is approved, in which you record the interviews you do, the events and places you visit in connection with your research, and the approximate time you spend on fieldwork tasks.  I look at these logs periodically, and set aside class time for you to discuss the progress of your fieldwork.  A research paper which uses relevant published sources to analyze and interpret data collected in course of your fieldwork, is due in final form on December 5.  You are also expected to write a  book review essay on an ethnography chosen from a list to be handed out in class.

To help you better understand assigned readings, each student is responsible for preparing five  summary essays on a selection of the assigned texts in course of the semester.  Choose from the readings marked by an asterisk).  These summaries should convey in your own words the central idea(s) or argument(s) of the article or book you read, indicate how its author supports her/his arguments, and perhaps comment on the overall organization of the text.  In addition, you should come to each class with two or three written questions for discussion related to that week's readings.  Student will be asked to help lead class discussion from time to time.
 
 
 

Written Assignments (all should be typed and double-spaced with one-inch margins)

-  Summary essays (at least five in all) due on the date the text you are writing about is scheduled to be discussed in class (2 pages each).
-  Research proposal (2 pages plus bibliography).
-  Book review on an ethnography of your choice, due November 14 (5 pages).
-  Research paper due December 5 (approx. 15 pages).

Grades will be determined roughly as follows:
Class participation (including summary essays and oral presentations) 40%.
Book review 20%.
Research paper (including proposal and fieldwork log) 40%.

Books Ordered

Ruth Behar & Deborah Gordon, eds. Women Writing Culture
Ruth Behar, Translated Woman
Philippe Bourgois, In Search of Respect: Selling Crack in El Barrio

Class Meetings

9/7 Course organization and introductions.

9/12 A Contemporary Ethnographic Representation of El Barrio

     Philippe Bourgois, In Search of Respect: Selling Crack in El Barrio.

9/14 Bourgois, In Search of Respect: Selling Crack in El Barrio.

9/19 Making Methodology Explicit

     Kathleen Dewalt, Billie Dewalt, Coral Wayland, "Participant Observation," chapter 8 in, H. Russell Bernard (ed.), Handbook of Methods in Cultural Anthropology.

 Besides the required reading listed above, you should also consult one or more of the following methodology texts placed on    reserve to help answer your questions about fieldwork.  They can also serve as reference materials throughout the semester       after you begin working on your research projects:
 H. Russell Bernard, Research Methods in Anthropology: Qualitative and Quantitative Approaches.
 L. L. Langness, & Gelya Frank, Lives: An Anthropological Approach to Biography.
 James P. Spradley, The Ethnographic Interview.
 Ruth Finnegan, Oral Traditions and the Verbal Arts: A Guide to Research Practices.

 9/21 The following edited collections of articles have been placed on reserve.  They each discuss the experience of doing fieldwork from a variety of perspectives.  Browse through the books, choose at least three articles that interest you, and read them carefully.  Write a summary of the central issues discussed in the papers you read and the questions they raise for you and come to class prepared to discuss them.
 Carolyn D. Smith & William Kornblum (eds.), In the Field: Readings on the Field Research Experience.
 Scott Grillis, Doing Ethnographic Research.
 Robert Lawless, Vison Sutlive, & Mario Zamora (eds.), Fieldwork: The Human Experience.
 Kathleen Bennett deMarrais (ed.), Inside Stories: Qualitative Research Reflections.
 Vered Amit (ed.) Constructing the Field: Ethnographic Fieldwork in the Contemporary World.
 Morris Freilich (ed.) In the Field: Readings on the Field Research Experience.

 Research proposals due.

9/26 Ethnography in the "Classical" Style

 Bronislaw Malinowski, Introduction to Argonauts of the Western Pacific.
 Meyer Fortes, Foreword and Introductory sections of The Dynamics of Clanship Among the Talensi.
 E. E. Evans-Pritchard, Introduction to The Nuer.

You are urged to attend as many sessions as possible of the symposium, "Haiti: Exploding the Myths," taking place on campus September 28 - 30.  Several of the participants are anthropologists.

9/28 The Context of Power

 Stephan Feuchtwang, "The Colonial Formation of British Social Anthropology,"   in, Talal Asad, ed., Anthropology and the Colonial Encounter.*

 Laura Nader, "Up the anthropologist," in, Dell Hymes ed., Reinventing Anthropology.*

10/3 Revisiting El Barrio

 Rina Benmayor, "Testimony, Action Research, and Empowerment: Puerto Rican Women and Popular Education," in, Women's Words: The Feminist Practice of Oral History, Sherna Berger Gluck and Daphne Patai (eds).*

 Juan Flores, "Salvación Casita: Space, Performance, and Community," in Florres, From  Bomba to Hip Hop: Puerto Rican Culture and Latino Identity.*

 Deborah A. Gordon, "Border Work: Feminist Ethnography and the Dissemination of Literacy," in, Women Writing Culture, Ruth Behar and Deborah A. Gordon (eds).*

10/5 Expected class trip to New York City (Oct 4th, or 5th - 7th) to meet with community-based organizations in El Barrio and elsewhere.

10/10 Medium, Audience, Purpose

 Barbara Myerhoff, Number Our Days, chapters 1 and 2.*

 Gelya Frank, "The Ethnographic Films of Barbara G. Myerhoff: Anthropology, Feminism, and the Politics of Jewish Identity," in, Behar & Gordon, eds., Women Writing Culture.*

 Screening in class of the Barbara Myerhoff documentary film, Number Our Days.

10/12 Hidden Maneuvers in Ethnography's Production: Postmodernist Critiques

 George Marcus and Dick Cushman, "Ethnographies as Texts."*

 James Clifford, "Partial Truths," in, J. Clifford & G. Marcus (eds), Writing Culture.*

10/17 Renato Rosaldo, "From the Door of His Tent: The Fieldworker and the   Inquisitor," in, James Clifford & George Marcus (eds), Writing Culture.*

 Clifford Geertz, "Slide Show: Evans-Pritchard's African Transparencies," chapter 3 in Geertz, Works and Lives: The Anthropologist as Author.*

Fall Recess

10/24 Critical Assessments of the Postmodernists

 Ruth Behar, "Introduction: Out of Exile," in, Behar & Gordon (eds),  Women Writing  Culture.*

 Barbara Babcock, "‘Not in the Absolute Singular:' Rereading Ruth Benedict," in, Behar  & Gordon (eds), Women Writing Culture.*

10/26 Arjun Appadurai, "Putting Hierarchy in its Place."*

Note that there will be two public lectures on campus this week that you are required to attend.
Professor Arjun Appadurai will be speaking on October 30 on some aspect of "Refugees, Displacement, and Diaspora," and Dr. Richard Nelson will deliver the annual Otis environmental studies lecture.

10/31 Glenn Jordan, "On Ethnography in an Intertextual Situation: Reading Narratives or Deconstructing Discourse?"  In, Faye Harrison, ed. Decolonizing Anthropology.*

 Richard Fox, "Introduction: Working in the Present," in, Recapturing Anthropology.*

 José Limón, "Representation, Ethnicity, and the Precursory Ethnography: Notes of  a Native Anthropologist," in, Richard G. Fox (ed), Recapturing Anthropology.*

11/2 Screening and discussion of the PBS film, Shattering the Silences.

11/7 Navigating the Borderlands, Ethnographically

 Ruth Behar, Translated Woman: Crossing the Border with Esperanza's Story.

11/9 Behar, Translated Woman.

11/14 Student critiques of a selection of recent ethnographies.

11/16 No class, I'll be away at the American Anthropological Association meetings.  Be sure to make good use of the extra      time to work on your research projects.

Thanksgiving Recess

11/28 Arjun Appadurai, "Patriotism and its Futures," chapter 8 in Appadurai, Modernity at Large.*

11/30 Oral presentations of research papers

12/5 Research paper due.