Winter 2021
ANTH 358. The Process of Anthropological Research
Ismael Vaccaro
Assignments (practicums)
These exercises are designed to give you hand-on fieldwork experience. Each assignment will be worth 7
points. You will produce a written report (max. 2 pages; Times New Roman 12; double spaced). Each
report must have three components: the data generated by the exercise, some analysis of the data, and
a reflection on the methodology and its process of implementation.
1. Observation of a Religious Ceremony
In this exercise you will be an external observer that, without the benefit of direct interviews,
will observe a ritual social event. Your assignment is to attend a religious ceremony of your
choosing, observe respectfully and, once the ceremony is over, write a report on your
observations. Elements to which you can pay attention:
• Actors involved in the ceremony and roles played (internal hierarchies).
• Structure and timing of the succession of events.
• Meaning attributed to the rites observed.
• Description of the locale where the ceremony occurs.
• Etic analysis of the observed events.
2. Interviewing
Interview two different people about the same issue using two different interviewing strategies.
Individual A will be questioned only using a set of closed questions. Individual B will be
questioned about the same issue using open-ended questions. The subject matter of both
interviews should focus on the linguistic background of the interviewees and their opinions on
Québec linguistic policies.
In this assignment your written report needs to include transcriptions of both interviews (do not
count towards the page limit), a reflection on the different results obtained, and a consideration
of the advantages and challenges you encountered using each interview strategy.
3. Collecting a Life Story
In this assignment you will interview an elder. The goal of the interview is to collect a reasonably
coherent life story of the individual.
The report has to include an account of the major technical problems encountered while
conducting the interview, a summarized version of the life of the interviewee, and a reflection
that correlates the main personal events experienced by the interviewee with larger social
events (e.g. The Great Depression, a war, independence referendums etc.).
4. Genealogy
In this assignment you will conduct an interview designed to generate a genealogy. You will
prepare a genealogy with your interviewee, your ego, as the center of a genealogical three at
least two generations old (from ego). The interviewee cannot be the same person from who you
collected a life story.
You will add a spatial component to the genealogy by asking where the members of the
genealogy live (or lived). If any spatial pattern emerged (migration, clusters, permanence) make
that part of your analysis.
5. Coding
In this assignment you will be given a text. Your goal is to design and implement a coding
scheme to would allow you to analyze the text by identifying its main themes.
a. Do a preliminary reading of the text marking the themes and codes you think are relevant.
b. Extract all of those codes and prepare a coding scheme (with explanation). Generic codes,
specific codes, clusters of codes, and so on.
c. Discuss the text in light of your coding system.
d. Discuss coding and discursive analysis as a methodology.