Ethnographic Method & Analysis
Anthropology 557
Spring semester 2002
Dr. Phyllis Chock
MW 1:10 - 2:25 p.m.
Ethnography has two distinctive aspects in its approach to the study of social life. First, it uses observations of social life in natural settings ("fieldwork") in which people's lives are mutually implicated in each other as they are constituted by social processes and historical moments beyond people's direct control. The import of observation in natural settings is that the data are entailments and entanglements of social life and not logically derived abstractions made by the observer/scientist. Second, ethnographic practice requires the analysis of data on social life by contextualizing these data. Rather than segmenting data, ethnography works always to restore integuments of the data both to the natural settings of social life ("holism," relating parts to wholes) and to social institutions and processes outside those settings ("functionalism," connecting systems of relationships).
Ethnography pays particular attention to language as data, because both social value and cultural meanings are created and exchanged largely (though of course not entirely) through the medium of language. Both observation and analysis therefore look closely at what people say to each other and at what they remain silent about. Talk is social practice. Both what people say and what they don't say produce value and meaning in social life. Their talk is socially constituted, that is, it is given by social and historical forces beyond their control; but, at the same time, people's talking also constitutes their lives together by specifying, creating, questioning, changing the terms and frames of their activities and their very being.
Two key analytical tools by which ethnographic practice gains entry into in social life include (1) the idea of exchange and (2) the idea of social classification. With exchange, we examine the social relations that produce value in everyday life. With classification, we analyze cultural meanings that shape and are shaped by the exchanges. These analytical tools have been derived from the principal data bases of ethnography, namely ritual and myth, and then generalized to the analysis of other areas of social life.
In this semester's work we will examine ethnographic practice as it uses these tools to connect two settings of communication -- "the field" with "the profession." Our aims are to find out (1) how the ethnographer makes her/his data, frames her/his analysis, and represents social life in "an ethnography" and (2) how each one of these and their relations are taken as problematic by ethnographers.
Required texts: Required texts: (* = undergrad required text)
Boddy, Janice. Wombs and Alien Spirits.
*Dumont, Jean-Paul. The Headman and I: Ambiguity and Ambivalence in the Fieldworking Experience.
*Evans-Pritchard, E.E. The Nuer.
*Ginsburg, Faye. Contested Lives.
Handler, Richard. Nationalism and the Politics of Culture in Quebec.
Herzfeld, Michael. Portrait of a Greek Imagination.
*Malinowski, Bronislaw. Argonauts of the Western Pacific.
These books are available in the bookstore and in Central Reserve; other readings (articles, chapters) have been placed in Central Reserve.
Papers, Exams, and Grades:
For undergraduates, there will be two exams, a midterm (30%) and a final (30%), one paper of about five pages (20%), which will be due on April 26, and readings (20%). Paper topics will be assigned at midterm. Reading assignments (indicated by an * in the list below) should be prepared for each class so that you are ready to discuss the material. Written assignments are due on the dates announced. There are also Study Questions to help you prepare for the Midterm and Final Exams. Click on the Assignment or Study Questions buttons: For undergraduates, there will be two exams, a midterm (30%) and a final (30%), one paper of about five pages (20%), which will be due on April 26, and readings (20%). Paper topics will be assigned at midterm. Reading assignments (indicated by an * in the list below) should be prepared for each class so that you are ready to discuss the material. Written assignments are due on the dates announced. There are also Study Questions to help you prepare for the Midterm and Final Exams. Click on the Assignment or Study Questions buttons: there will be two exams, a midterm (30%) and a final (30%), one paper of about five pages (20%), which will be due on April 26, and readings (20%). Paper topics will be assigned at midterm. Reading assignments (indicated by an * in the list below) should be prepared for each class so that you are ready to discuss the material. Written assignments are due on the dates announced. There are also Study Questions to help you prepare for the Midterm and Final Exams. Click on the Assignment or Study Questions buttons: there will be two exams, a midterm (30%) and a final (30%), one paper of about five pages (20%), which will be due on April 26, and readings (20%). Paper topics will be assigned at midterm. Reading assignments (indicated by an * in the list below) should be prepared for each class so that you are ready to discuss the material. Written assignments are due on the dates announced. There are also Study Questions to help you prepare for the Midterm and Final Exams. Click on the Assignment or Study Questions buttons:
Assignment
1 Assignment
2 Assignment
3
For graduate students, the course requirements
include responsibility for this reading list in class, two short papers (5 - 10 pp.)
prepared on the assigned readings for designated classes (25% each) and distributed to
class members, and one longer paper (15 pp.). Topics for the longer papers, which should
reflect a bibliography and reading well beyond assigned readings, should be chosen after
consulting with me. Grad students are expected to attend all classes and to have prepared
the assigned readings for each class discussion.
How to reach me: My office
hours are Mondays and Wednesdays at 10 -12 p.m. You may arrange another time with me by
appointment. My office is 3 Marist, phone (202)319-5080. My e-mail address is
chock@cua.edu. Schedule of topics and
readings January 7, 9 Introduction: Description as
theory and method Read: *Geertz, C. "Thick
Description." In The Interpretation of Cultures. pp.1-30. Clifford, James. "On Ethnographic
Allegory." In Writing Culture, ed. J. Clifford and G. Marcus, pp. 98-121. Marcus, George. "Contemporary Problems of
Ethnography in the Modern World System." In Writing Culture, ed. J. Clifford
and G. Marcus, pp. 165-193. Ricoeur, Paul. "The Model of the Text." In
Hermeneutics and the Human Sciences. January 14, 16 Ethnographic realism
Undergrads: *Print out and work on Assignment 1. Bring to class. Read: *Malinowski, B.
"Foreward," "Introduction," and Ch. I-VI, in Argonauts of the
Western Pacific. Stocking, George W., Jr. 1983. "The
Ethnographer's Magic," In Observers Observed. Madison: U. Wisconsin Press. pp.
70-119. Lutkehaus, Nancy. 1995. "Margaret Mead and the
'Rustling-of-the-Wind-in-the-Palm-Trees School' of Ethnographic Writing." In Women
Writing Culture, ed. R. Behar and D.A. Gordon. Berkeley: U. of California Press. Young, Michael W. 1998. Malinowski’s
Kiriwina: Fieldwork Photography 1915-1918. Chicago IL: U. of Chicago Press. January 23 Undergrads: *Bring the second part
of Assignment 1 to class. Read: *Malinowski, B. Chs. VII -
XVIII, XXII, in Argonauts of the Western Pacific. Anderson, Jon. 1995. "Rhetorical Objectivity in
Malinowski's Argonauts." In Postmodern Representations, ed. R.H. Brown.
U. of Ill. Press, pp.80-98. Strathern, Marilyn. 1987. "Out of
Context..." Current Anthropology 28:251-270. January 28, 30 Exchange as a tool of analysis
Undergrads: *Bring the third part of Assignment 1 to class. Read: *Sahlins, M. 1965. "On
the Sociology of Primitive Exchange," in The Relevance of Models in Social
Anthropology, ed. Max Gluckman and Fred Eggan. pp. 139-236. Weiner, Annette B. 1994. "Cultural Difference
and the Density of Objects," American Ethnologist 21(1): 391-430. February 4, 6 Structural, institutional
analysis Read: *Evans-Pritchard, E.E.
"Introductory," Ch. I - III, in The Nuer. Rosaldo, Renato. "From the Door of His
Tent..." In Writing Culture, ed. J. Clifford and G. Marcus. February 11, 13 Read: *Evans-Pritchard, E.E. Ch. IV
- VI, in The Nuer. Karp, Ivan and Kent Maynard. 1984. "Reading The
Nuer." Current Anthropology 24:481-492. February 18, 20 Introspective, critical analysis
Undergrads: *Print out Study Questions 1. Read: *Dumont, J-P. The Headman
and I. February 26, 28 Heteroglossia and ethnography Read: Boddy, Janice. Wombs and
Alien Spirits.
Feb 26 -- MIDTERM
EXAM for undergraduates. First papers from graduate students are due.
March 11, 13 The life history
Read: Herzfeld, Michael. Portrait of a Greek Imagination.
*Herzfeld, Chs. 1 & 2 Portrait of a Greek Imagination.
Reed-Danahay, ed. 1997. Auto/Ethnography: Rewriting the Self and the Social. Berg.
March 18, 20 Classification as a tool of analysis
Undergrads: *Print out and work on Assignment 2. Bring it to class.
Read: *Geertz, C. "Person, Time, and Conduct in Bali," in The Interpretation of Cultures.
Drummond, Lee. 1980. "The Cultural Continuum..." Man 15:352-374.
Leach, Edmund. 1964. "Anthropological Aspects of Language: Animal Categories and Verbal Abuse," in New Directions in the Study of Language, ed. E. Lenneberg. MIT Press.
Needham, Rodney. 1975. "Polythetic Classification..." Man 10:349-369.
Sahlins, M. 1985. "Supplement to the Voyages of Cook," in Islands of History. pp. 32-72.U. of Chicago Press.
March 25, 27 Structuralist sorting
Undergrads: *Print out and work on Assignment 3. Bring it to class.
Read: *Lévi-Strauss, C. "The Structural Study of Myth," in Structural Anthropology.
Sahlins, Marshall. 1976. "La Penseé Bourgeoise...," In Culture and Practical Reason. U of Chicago Press.
April 3 Language in natural settings
Read: *Briggs, Charles. Ch. 3, in Learning How to Ask.
Urciuoli, Bonnie. 1993. "Representing Class..." Anthropological Quarterly 66:203-210.
Chock, Phyllis. 1991. "'Illegal Aliens' and 'Opportunity': Mythmaking in Congressional Hearings." American Ethnologist 18:279-294.
April 8, 10 Ethnography at home: "destructive analysis"
Read: Handler, Richard. Nationalism and the Politics of Culture in Quebec.
Chock, Phyllis. 1986. "Irony and Ethnography," Anthropological Quarterly.
Handler, Richard. "On Dialogue and Destructive Analysis," Journal of Anthropological Research 41:171-82.
Marcus, George. 1989. "Imagining the Whole..." Critique of Anthropology 9(3):7-30.
April 15, 17 Social drama analysis
Undergrads: *Print out Study Questions 2.
Read: *Ginsburg, Faye. Contested Lives.
April 22, 24 The ethnographic object/ethnographic authority
Read: *Fabian, Johannes. Ch.2. "Our Time, Their Time, No Time," in Time and the Other. pp. 37-69.
Clifford, James. "On Ethnographic Authority," reprinted in The Predicament of Culture.
Mascia-Lees, Frances E., et al. 1989. "The Postmodern Turn in Anthropology: Cautions from a Feminist Perspective," Signs 15:7-33.
All papers due on April 24.
FINAL EXAM DURING EXAM WEEK for undergraduates
Friday, May 3, 8-10 a.m.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I have read the syllabus carefully and noted the assignments and the tests. I am responsible for turning in the work on the dates indicated.
Signed ____________________________________________________________
Date __________________
(Rev. 11/05/02)