Class schedule
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READING
Introduction
Mead and Samoa
Bedouins
Dopefiends
WRITING
Mead and Samoa
Bedouins
Dopefiends
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ANTHROPOLOGY 204
READING ETHNOGRAPHY
SPRING QUARTER 2011
INTRODUCTION: ETHNOGRAPHY AS LITERARY TEXT
What is ethnography?
Class overview
Class business
Tuesday, March 29 Read Raymond Firth, "In Primitive Polynesia," from We, the Tikopia (1936) and Bamo Ayi, "Seattle First Free Methodist Church," from Fieldwork Connections (2007).
Come to class ready to write for 5 minutes on one of the basic questions we will be discussing throughout the class:
- Is ethnography about them or about us?
- Is ethnography a science or a literary form?
- Is ethnography fact or fiction?
- Is ethnography the same now as it was in the days of Malinowski, Firth, Evans-Pritchard, and Mead?
Read carefully E-E Evans-Pritchard, "Witchcraft Explains Unfortunate Events," from Witchcraft, Oracles, and Magic Among the Azande (1937), and Clifford Geertz: Deep Play: Notes on the Balinese Cockfight (1972). Come to class ready to write contrasting the writing styles of the two authors.
Thursday, March 31 Quiz Sections
Read Lovemaking and the Psychology of Erotic Life from Bronislaw Malinowski, The Sexual Life of Savages (19. Come to section prepared to discuss the ethics of fieldwork and the ethics of ethnographic writing in light of Malinowski's writings about sex.
Friday, April Fool's
Come to class ready to write a half-page outline of an ethnography that you would like to write someday, and to participate in a free-for-all discussion on the limits (or the limitless possibilities) of writing ethnography.