Anthropology
Research Assigment
GO SOMEWHERE STRANGE
A research work of original investigation in the field, resulting in a brief ethnography.
Your assignment here is to both to participate and to make observations in/at some gathering of people that is outside your own cultural, or gender, or religious, or ethnic/racial/national frame of reference; produce notes; then do some book research that speaks to that experience; and finally,write up a 3000 word (about 10 pages) report of your experience and the findings of your subsequent researching.
Do not be limited by these following examples, they are just suggestions of some possibilities - the point is for you to go into a socio-cultural milieu that is strange TO YOU:
go
hang out in a bowling alley, if you haven't been in one- if you are a Christian, go to Buddhist or Islamic or Greek Orthodox prayer meeting/service - go with a guide if you know someone;
- if you are a man, go spend an afternoon getting your hair done at a place that is all women; have a guide.
- if you are elderly, go to South Street in Philly on a Friday night with someone young enough to explain the scene to you;
- if you are young, go to a senior citizen center or club, and take the bus with them to Atlantic City;
- if you are rich, go hang out at 5th and Venango for a couple of hours, or go shopping around Kensington and Allegheny on a Saturday morning.
- if you love hip-hop music, go to the Kimmel Center and be part of the mosh pit(?) at a performance of the Philadelphia Orchestra.
- if you are Gay and Black, go to a Flyers game and make sure you get the cheap seats way up high.
- If you have an acquaintance that is culturally, linguistically, ethnically different than yourself, see if they will invite you to spend an evening or an afternoon with their family.
- OR come up with your own idea - I want you to experience, be with, talk to, some people/events/places that are outside your usual cultural comfort zone. Do not go anyplace that is unsafe, or at which you would be unwelcome or intrusive. The actual "place" is less important than the opportunity to spend time in a milieu of people who are relating/behaving within a code that is unknown, alien or strange to yourself.
The
assignment is
- To go into the field, spend time participating and observing. Expect to spend about an afternoon or an evening, ideally two or three times during semester. Notice everything that seems different, distinctive, diverse from your own experience.
- Immediately after you have left, sit down someplace and SCRIBBLE OUT NOTES to yourself of everything you found remarkable sights, sounds, smells, setting,dress/fashion/costume, age, color, language, ceremony, music, art, behavior, attitude, values etc. As much as possible note observations (that is don't make judgments of value, or make summary conclusions, or just your reactive impressions, as in "these people are weird/wonderful/friendly/unfriendly/evil.") Note the fact of the matter - "All the women wore short pants", not "The women were a bunch of hoochie-mamas". Do take note of your feelings, perspectives and judgments, write them down also, but separately from your observations. Write down whatever comes into your head, that you observed
- After a few days have gone by, I want you to take these scribbled notes (I expect that this would be a few pages) and type up these field observations- these will become your- "FIELD NOTES".
- Later, (after presenting your field notes to interested classmates) read over your notes, and take special interest in what YOU found remarkable - this will become the subject matter of your research. This step is difficult - you will need the help of your classmates and myself to shape your curiosity into a researchable quest(question). We will spend some time during the second month of class helping one another on this phase of the project.
- Next, in library or on internet, search for authors,articles, books that will deepen your understanding of the diversity that you encountered in your field experience, that struck your curiosity (your research quest or question). Review other ethnographies, and critiques of ethnographic literature. Read, take notes, think. Also return to the field, if necessary, to clarify or to re-observe.
- Finally, polish up the writing of your field experience; include insight that you gained through the scholarly research; and add a concluding summary that will communicate to your readers (me and your classmates) what you learned from this project - your experience and your research into it, and your thinking about it all. Be sure to check in "Links", under "APA Format" for instructions on how to cite your sources in the body of your final text and also in the bibliography.
- Next add your Bibliography, Works Cited, or References section.
- Finally, print out your final text, add a cover/title page, print out your reference section, make sure that it is as presentable in print format as you can make it, staple it, and submit to me by the next to the last week of class.
For further discussion of Ethnography, Ethnographic research
Dr David Garson, North Carolina State
Penn's Center for Urban Ethnography
An extensive bibliography on Anthropological Field Methods by Borut Telaban