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(Disclaimer:
This syllabus is only meant to provide a description
of Anthropology 5110. As such it may not be up to date.)
Summer
Ethnographic Field School in Huanchaco Peru
June
9-July 11, 2003
Associated course title: Anth 5110/Ethnographic Field School (approved
through EPC in Dec. of 02).
Instructor:
Bonnie Glass-Coffin, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Anthropology and
Anthropology Program Director
Department of Sociology, Social Work and Anthropology
Utah State University
Logan, UT 84322-0730
435-797-4064
glasscob@cc.usu.edu
Course objectives: Anth 5110
This course combines classroom based learning with supervised field research.
The goal of this course is to provide students with practical training
and experience in the use of ethnographic field methods. Students will
be introduced to a "tool-kit" of methods that ethnographers often use
including mapping, unobtrusive observation, participant observation, ethnographic
and life-history interviewing, design and implementation of surveys and
questionnaires, and an introduction to participatory research methodologies.
As part of this course, students are introduced to theoretical and methodological
paradigms (inductive or "grounded" vrs. deductive or "hypothesis driven"
approaches) that guide research design. They learn how to select research
samples and how to gather, organize and code field notes. Students then
design, conduct, and "write-up" an ethnographic research project in consultation
with the instructor using methods learned in the classroom. Throughout
the course, students will be introduced to ethical issues that impact
ethnographic research.
Required texts (these are provided by the instructor as part of student
program fee):
Participant
Observation: A Guide for Fieldworkers by Kathleen and Billie DeWalt Native
Tours: The Anthropology of Travel and Tourism by Erve Chambers Additional
on-site reading assignments assigned by instructor.
Course requirements and evaluations:
1) Classroom meetings and one-on-one discussions with instructor = 65
points
2) Writing assignments and field-work exercises = 100 points
- Unobtrusive
observation/description vrs. inference in field-note writing
- Mapping/Household
census/kinship chart
- Participant
observation/strategies for expanding "scratch" notes
- Finding
and evaluating documents
- The
ethnographic or life-history interview/depicting dialogue
- Coding
and analyzing field-notes/asides, memos/ethno-semantic analysis of occupational,
SES, tourist, illness categories
- Sample
selection and survey design
- Rapid
assessment and participatory procedures.
3)
Field notes, activities log and field journal = 40 points
4) One page research proposal = 20 points
5) Written ethnographic report = 65 points
6) Oral presentation of report = 10 points
Course Outline:
Monday, June 9th (6 hours)
Required reading: DeWalt, pp. 1-34
- Overview
of field-school objectives and review of field-school rules
- Introduction
to ethnographic research
- Objectives
and orientation: (cultural relativism, ethnocentrism, holism)
- Components
(observation, participation, written description, analysis, report)
- Types
of fieldnotes: the daily log of research activities, the personal journal,
the field-record o
- The
researcher as instrument: learning to differentiate between observation
and inference o
- Exercise
#1: field-trip to Trujillo: unobtrusive observation exercise (with focus
on proxemics)
Tuesday,
June 10th (4 hours)
Required reading: DeWalt, pp. 141-162.
- "Head"
notes, "scratch" notes, and "extended" notes: transforming systemmatic
observations into descriptive accounts
- Ethical
considerations in ethnographic research
-
Thinking about research:
- Differentiating
between basic and applied research
- Differentiating
between positivistic and phenomenological paradigms
- Deductive
and inductive approaches to data collection
-
Traditional and participatory methodologies
- Structure
and function/symbol and ritual/macro and micro levels
- Beginning
to formulate the research question/operationalism
Wednesday,
June 11th (4 hours)
-
DUE in class: write-up of unobtrusive observation
- Introduction
to mapping, charting, canvassing
- Exercise
#2: community-resource maps of Huanchaco
Thursday, June 12th (4 hours)
Required reading: DeWalt pp. 35-91
- DUE
in class: completed maps
- Introduction
to participant observation
- Entering
the scene and building rapport
- Explaining
your presence
- Making
descriptive observations
- Recording
interactions: the pros and cons of jottings
- Exercise
#3: doing participant observation
Friday, June 13th (4 hours)
Required reading: DeWalt, pp. 209-235
-
Discussion of readings: strategies for expanding fieldnotes
- Methods
for recalling in order to write
- Perspectives
and points of view
- Expanding
jottings
- Setting
the scene o Incorporating dialogue
- Sketches
and episodes
- Exercise
#3 (continued): writing it up.
Monday, June 16th (4 hours)
Required reading: DeWalt, pp. 120-140, Chambers, preface
-
Defining tourism and our relationship with it
- Overview
of tourism research possibilities
- DUE
in class: write-up of participant observation exercise
- Introduction
to ethnographic interviewing
-
Selecting informants
- Informants
and ethical issues
- The
importance of triangulating
- Kinds
of interviews: structured, semi-structured, informal
- Preparing
question lists
- Kinds
of questions: fixed response, open-ended: grand-tour, structural, attribute/contrast
- Paying
attention to language/identifying the speaker and recording verbatim
phrases
- Life-history
vrs. kinship-charting, vrs. topic-centered interviews
- Preparing
and checking your equipment
- Recording,
charting and transcribing the interview
-
Semantic analysis and coding for themes.
- Defining
research possibilities in terms of tourism issues
- Exercise
#4: recovering and evaluating local documents for tourism research
Tuesday, June 17th (4 hours)
Required reading: DeWalt, pp. 83-119 and Chambers, Ch. 1
-
DUE in class: analysis of local documents related to tourism in Huanchaco
- Memos
and commentary in fieldnotes: in-process data-analysis and generating
questions for future inquiry (group-work)
- Exercise
#5: Setting-up/conducting an ethnographic interview: tourism in Huanchaco
Wednesday,
June 18th (3 hours)
Required reading: Chambers, Ch. 2
-
How to construct a research design/formulate a research proposal
- Quantification
in cultural anthropology
- Why
quantify?
-
To find patterns and generalizing from particular cases
- To
increase reliability and comparability of research
- To
resist tendency to ignore diversity/negative cases
- To
strengthen theoretical propositions through measurement/hypothesis testing
o To provide statistical power
- How
to quantify:
- Suggesting
hypotheses o Defining and operationalizing variables
- Deciding
how to test/measure (surveys, questionnaires, observations, various
experimental designs like case/control, cohort, etc.)
- Enumerating
the research population
- Selecting
a representative sample (differences between simple random, structured
random, opportunity/snow-ball, samples)
- Designing
the research protocol
Thursday,
June 19th (4 hours)
Required reading: DeWalt, pp. 163-208, Chambers, Ch. 3
- Formulating
the research question/problem
- Field-note
check #1
- DUE
in class/Ethnographic interview
- Discussion
of interviewing techniques and methods of reporting
-
Designing and differentiating between surveys and questionnaires
- Conducting
pre-tests and pilot-studies
- Coding:
quantitative vrs. qualitative challenges
- Exercise
#6: Designing a sample survey
Friday, June 20th (4 hours)
Required reading: DeWalt, pp. 239-263, Chambers, Ch. 4
- DUE
in class/Sample survey
- Discussion
of survey design
- Discussion
of readings/elements of the community study and the cultural content
checklist
- Narrowing
the research question/problem and deciding on a research orientation
Monday, June 23rd (2 hours + independent consultations on research/writing)
Required reading: TBA from Scrimshaw and Hurtado
- Introduction
to rapid assessment procedures
- Discussion
of readings
- Defining
the population in terms of relevance to the problem, access, sampling
- Describing
the significance of the research
- Field-note
check #2
Tuesday, June 24th (2 hours + independent consultations on research/writing)
Required reading: Slocum, et. al pp. 3-30 and TBA
- Introduction
to participatory research
- In-class
completion of a participatory research activity (exercise #7)
- Identifying
sources for background information
- Selecting
appropriate methodologies
Wednesday,
June 25th (2 hours + independent consultations on research/writing)
-
Coding and analyzing fieldnotes
- Memoing
and developing themes
- Individualized
help with research protocols and techniques
Thursday,
June 26th (2 hours + independent consultations on research/writing)
-
One-age research proposal DUE
Friday, June 27th (no class day)
Huanchaco festival of San Pedro/San Pablo is this Friday, Saturday and
Sunday
Monday, July 1st through Thursday, July 10th (1 hour+ independent consultations
on research/writing) Includes Fieldnote checks 3 and 4 on July 1st and
July 4th
-
Discussion topics depend on student activities but will include the
following:
- Instructor
observation of research techniques
- Development
of outlines as models for data gathering
- Writing
as disciplined activity
- Keeping
in sight the holistic perspective of anthropology
- Reviewing
problems in coding
- Discussion
of appropriateness of rapid appraisal, participatory, and team-oriented
approaches to data collection
- Protecting
informant identities
- Responsibilities
to local community, clients, colleagues, and the discipline
- Writing
executive summaries and making your research useful to specific audiences
- Fieldwork
as personal growth
Friday, July 11th (4 hours--Presentation of final papers and concluding
remarks)
- FINAL
REPORT DUE IN CLASS
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