Learning Outcomes: Students successfully completing this assignment will demonstrate the following:
- the ability to write basic ethnographic descriptions and use core anthropological concepts in an ethnographic analysis
- the ability to communicate and interact respectfully across linguistic and cultural differences.
- the ability to utilize anthropological perspectives to reflect on and think critically about current events and processes in the world.
- determine and assess relationships among societies, institutions, and systems.
Background: A key focus of this course is on global connections and global diversity, including the increasing movement of information, technology, and goods, capital (money), and people around the planet. Of course, in Europe, North America, and elsewhere, we’ve seen reactions against globalization from both the left and the right: anti-immigrant sentiment in the U.S. and France, fear of international terrorism and undocumented immigration, anger over the “offshoring” of jobs, concern over environmental damage, stagnating wages, and for many, diminished opportunity. At the same time, like it or not, we are living globalization and increased global diversity in the United States. If you look, you can see signs of global diversity all around you.
The Task at hand: For your ethnographic observation, I’d like you to go out to explore some dimension of nearby (off-campus) global diversity. Even if you’re in small town Ohio, West Virginia, Kentucky, or Indiana, you can’t not find it.
I would like you to visit and describe a venue with an evident global connection (outside the United States and Canada and preferably outside of Western Europe –UNLESS YOU HAPPEN TO BE A STUDENT WHO ORIGINATES FROM OUTSIDE OF THE US). The most obvious sites that come to mind are restaurants, but I hope you won’t restrict yourself only to eateries. Often restaurants are busy and servers may not have the time to converse beyond perfunctory, highly-structured exchanges—but that's not always the case. (Students and I have had some remarkable conversations in Chinese and Mexican restaurants.) These are some of the most obvious examples of the global era in which we live.
You might also visit, say, a temple, mosque, or African Christian Church, a community meeting, nail salon, hookah bar, a sporting event, an informal event or gathering, or a neighbor’s home. [No, you may not use your trip to Cancún last year. This research needs to be carried out during THIS COURSE. The point is to engage the present more anthropologically.]
Keep in mind that no one is under any obligation to open up to you; people have a right to privacy. Besides, given the current climate, folks are justified in being cautious. Fortunately, however, in my experience, many people, if given the chance, want to be understood and respected on their own terms.
ALTERNATIVE RESEARCH OPPORTUNTY:
This paper may also be completed with the use of YOUR IMAGINATION and one of your favorite films from the class. By this I mean, if you simply loved Darshini in Dadi’s Family, or were intrigued by the community organizers and festivals in Neighborhood Tokyo, you can pretend to be an anthropologist in the film, and conduct your research. For example, you could describe how you went about getting permission, like Ted Bestor, to live in the community and study it, and then describe how you would go about your research, and what you learned from it. If you want to take a virtual trip to Jamaica, you can describe your trip, how the locals reacted to you, and how you found out about the culture and the impacts of globalization and debt to a rural farmer. Your paper would be similar to one described in this overview, but it would be based more on your own respectful imagining of how difficult the research would be, and whether you think you would be successful.
In any case, visit this venue, observe it, describe in, and then engage in some cultural analysis, interpretation, and reflection. Your paper should have the following organization:
1) Introduction: Briefly introduce the subject and venue you observed, a key point or two that emerged, and the anthropological concepts you’ll use in your analysis. You should also include a brief description of how and when you went about your assignment.
2) Description: As in ethnographic observation 1, describe the setting, social interaction, language use, and any conversations or interactions you were able to have. If you go to a commercial venue (a restaurant or store), you should make a purchase. This section needs to be sufficiently developed and detailed from some useful cultural insights to emerge. “I walked in, paid for my gas, and bought a six-pack, smokes, and three instant lottery tickets before heading out the door” won’t do it.
3) Analysis: a) What are the key themes or insights that emerge from your observations and interactions? b) Return to the anthropological concepts you introduced in your introduction to help explain your observation anthropologically and culturally. By now, you should have a fuller “tool kit”: the culture concept, globalization, economic practices and commodity chains, kinship and family, politics, gender, and social stratification, etc. If you focus on religion and symbols you might look ahead to Unit IV to identify relevant concepts.
4) Interpretation and Reflection:
a. Interpretation: What do you think was going on culturally during your observation or interaction? What insights were you able to discern about your interlocutors point-of-view? How do you think your interlocutor felt about your interaction?
b. Reflection: So, what did you learn from this assignment—culturally, about doing ethnography, about using anthropological concepts, about your cultural self? What cultural limits or barriers (within yourself) did you encounter and how did these shape your experience “in the field.” What misunderstandings or potential misunderstandings did you encounter and how did you handle these? Do you feel that your observation was successful or unsuccessful—why or why not? What might you have one differently? What would you like to learn more about? How could this assignment be improved?