Type of Credit: Elective
Credit(s)
Number of Students
Course Description
Ethnography is at the foundation of all theoretical developments in the discipline of anthropology. As such, it is a powerful tool through which to understand contemporary historical issues and developments. Ethnographic theory is intertwined with the method of participant observation, which illuminates historical processes and theoretical concepts through deep descriptions of lived experiences. In this class we will review the development of key epistemological frameworks to understand ethnography as a particular way of knowing about the world. Ethnography is also a way of being in the world. Reflexive and aware, the ethnographer engages with lived experiences to document what people say about what they do, what they actually do, and the political, economic, and environmental outcomes of particular sets of actions. Through this interaction of ways of knowing and ways of being, the practice of ethnography offers insights into the human condition and human systems from multiple subject positions—those of the theorist or historian, those of studied community, and those of the ethnographer. In this course we will learn about the various theories of ethnography from a historical perspective, but we will do this with a critical eye with the objective of transforming rather than reproducing current knowledge. By the end of the course, students will have a solid grasp on the ways that theories, methods, and reflection combine through ethnographic writing toward critical analytical insights. Ethnography teaches us about ourselves and others, providing important knowledge about the development and transformations of cultures.
“In times of change learners inherit the earth; while the learned find themselves beautifully equipped to deal with a world that no longer exists.” Eric Hoffer
能力項目說明
Learning Outcomes:
Students will have a strong grasp of the intellectual and political history of ethnographic investigations, as well as an understanding of the foundational and current theories of ethnography.
Critical analysis is key to this course and students will be able to apply it to all kinds of documents using the Elements of Critical Assessment and Analysis (ACE-A).
Three-credit course
To achieve the three-credit course requirement, this course offers at least 54 hours of instruction.
We will meet physically in class for 3-hour sessions weekly (42 hours). Week 8 is a mid-term take-home exam. Week 16 is the final take-home exam.
Office hour instruction is offered each week (3 hours/wk. adding 48 hours of additional instruction opportunities).
Weekly Summary:
Summary of each week’s reading, max 1000 words, due before the beginning of class. Learn to identify the author’s main argument and to situate the work in your own thinking. Practice and internalize the functions and philosophies of citations and cross referencing.
Exams:
Exams are designed for learning, not testing. Take-home, open-book exams will consist of 4 short essay questions or a single literature review of course material 4-6000 words.
Artificial Intelligence
AI is a tool, like a calculator. Why, exactly it was so vigorously developed and deployed at this historical moment, especially considering its massive impact on water and energy use, is an important question to consider. If students wish to stop thinking in order to advance their careers there is little that the academic institution can do, except to inform you and set certain parameters. AI does not generate knowledge and makes strange mistakes. Its use for crafting papers or understanding assigned essays will be obvious in this class. Using it as a tool to improve the readability of your independently crafted article is acceptable, other uses are lazy and wasteful of common pool resources.
Course Schedule
Week 1: Introduction
Read:
Nader; Laura. 2011. “Ethnography as Theory.” HAU: Journal of Ethnographic Theory 1(1):211. (http://www.haujournal.org/index.php/hau/article/view/hau1.1.008).
Lederman, Rena and Rena Lederman. 2017. “Remapping ‘Magic’: Extending the Terrain of an Already Capacious Category.” HAU: Journal of Ethnographic Theory 7(3):373–375. (https://www.haujournal.org/index.php/hau/article/view/1275).
Jones, Graham M. 2017. “Magic, an Appreciation.” Hau: Journal of Ethnographic Theory 7(3):399–407. (https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/pdfplus/10.14318/hau7.3.026).
Introduce individual research projects and student/instructor interests
Course Objectives; ACE-FA reading;
Week 2: Cultural Relativism, Historical Particularism, Function, and Structure
Boas, Franz. 1938. The Mind of Primitive Man.
Preface and Introduction
Radcliffe-Brown, A. R. (1952). Structure and Function in Primitive Society; essays and addresses. The Free Press.
Chapters 9 & 10
Further reading:
Boas, Franz. 1974. “On Alternating Sounds.” Pp. 72–77 in A Franz Boas Reader. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Boas, Franz. 1940. “The Ethnological Significance of Esoteric Doctrines.” in Race, Language and Culture. New York: The Macmillan Co.
Week 3: Symbols and Interpretations
Beyond Structure and Function
Geertz, Clifford. 1973. Interpretation of Cultures. New York: Basic Books
Chapter 1 & 2
Significant Symbols
Douglas, Mary. Purity and Danger.
Acknowledgements, Introduction, Chapter 1 (only pp. 7-11), Chapter 2
Csordas, Thomas J. 2013. “Morality as a Cultural System?” Current Anthropology 54(5):523–46.
Week 4: Ritual and Habitus
Ritual:
Bell; C. M. 1992. Ritual Theory; Ritual Practice. New York: Oxford University Press
Preface, Introduction, Section III: Ritual and Power
Magic:
Taussig, Micheal. 2003. “Viscerality, Faith, and Skepticism: Another Theory of Magic.” in Magic and Modernity: Interfaces of Revelation and Concealment, edited by B.Meyer and P.Pels. Stanford: Stanford University Press.
Habitus
Bourdieu, Pierre. 1977. Outline of a Theory of Practice. Cambridge. U.K.: New York: Cambridge University Press.
Section 4
Week 5: Myths and Frames
Symbols and Structures
Lévi-Strauss, C. 1963. The Structural Study of Myth. In Structural Anthropology. New York, London: Basic Books.
Levi-Strauss, C. 1973. Structuralism and ecology. Social Science Information, 12(1), 7–23.
Frame Analysis
Goffman, Erving. 1974. Frame Analysis: An Essay on the Organization of Experience. New York: Harper & Row.
Introduction and Chapter 7
Week 6: Anti-Structure and Post-Structural
Liminality and Anti-Structure
Turner, Victor Witter. 2008. The Ritual Process: Structure and Anti-Structure. New Brunswick, N.J: Aldine Transaction.
Chapter 3 and Chapter 4
Post-Structural
Foucault, M. 1977. Discipline and Punish: the birth of the prison. New York: Pantheon Books.
The Body of the Condemned (pp. 3-31); Docile Bodies (pp. 135-169)
Panopticism (pp. 195-230)
Week 7: Gender and Ontologies
Gender
Strathern, M. (1988). The Gender of the Gift. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press. Introduction (p. 1-40); Chapter 7 (p. 171-190).
Ontologies
Descola, Philippe. 2013. Beyond Nature and Culture. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Introduction, Chapters 1, 2, 5
Week 8: Mid-term Exam – No Class
Week 9: Economic Anthropology
Read
Graeber, D. 2011. Debt: the first 5,000 years. Melville House.
Chap 1 - 7
Week 10: Medical Ethnography
Read
Stevenson, Lisa. 2014. Life Beside Itself: Imagining care in the Canadian Arctic. Oakland: University of California Press.
Introduction, Chap 1-6.
Week 11: Feminist Ethnography
Read:
Mahmood, Saba. 2005. Politics of Piety: The Islamic revival and the feminist subject. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
Preface, Chap 1,3,5 and epilogue
Week 12: Ethnography of Development
Read:
Rock, Joeva Sean. 2024. We are not Starving: The struggle for food sovereignty in Ghana. Michigan State University Press.
Introduction,
Week 13: Urban Ethnography
Read:
Fassin, Didier. 2013. Enforcing Order: An Ethnography of Urban Policing. Malden, MA: Polity Press. Prologue, Chapter 1-3,5,7.
Week 14: Networks and Multi-Species
Read:
Tsing; Anna Lowenhaupt. 2015. The Mushroom at the End of the World: On the Possibility of Life in Capitalist Ruins. Princeton: Princeton University Press. Read Part I: What’s Left?, and Part II: After Progress: Salvage Accumulation
Week 15: Networks and Multi-Species
Read
Tsing; Anna Lowenhaupt. 2015. The Mushroom at the End of the World: On the Possibility of Life in Capitalist Ruins. Princeton: Princeton University Press. Read Part III: Disturbed Beginnings: Unintentional Design and Part IV: In the Middle of Things.
Week 16: Final Exam – No class
Take Home, Open Book
Due 5pm on the last day of finals week (Dec 19)
Class Participation 25%
Mid-term short essay exam 25%
Final literature review 25%
Weekly Reading Summary 25%
All course material will be made available through Moodle