Writing Ethnography
Anthropology 417
(01:070:417)
Fall 2013
Thursdays 9:15am-12:15pm
Ruth Adams Building, room 302
Professor David M. Hughes
Office: Biosciences Building room 201
Office hours: Mondays 10am-1pm and Wednesdays 1pm-3pm
Email: dhughes@aesop.rutgers.edu
Course description
The “graphy” in “ethnography” refers to writing, and it is more difficult by far than the
“ethno.” This course approaches ethnography as a literary genre. We will examine
various styles of the form: its degree of reflexivity, its quotation of “native” voices, and
its collaboration with charts and images. How does one capture in prose the profoundly
ethical and intimate encounters of fieldwork? In the second part of the course, we will
follow ethnographers who have broken the bounds of the ethnographic genre. They
publish biography, travelogue, memoir, and even fiction. Writ-small, such transgressions
may enrich even the most cautious text. Still, “graphy” can be almost unbearably
difficult. Rather they deny the obstacles, this course will confront squarely writer’s
block, English grammar, and minutiae of style. In weekly “writing workshops,” students
will submit paragraphs to a group editing process. Ultimately, the course offers a “safe
space” where junior ethnographers will consider writing – in its humane and mechanical
aspects and as a lifelong calling.
Objectives of the course
By the end of the course, students should be able to:
1. Identify and criticize genres of ethnographic writing;
2. Represent voices of informants in various registers;
3. Write with verve and clarity;
4. Edit their own prose and that of their peers.
Core learning goals of the School of Arts and Sciences
This course fulfills the following goals
Cognitive Skills and Processes
[WC] Writing and Communication - all courses must meet goal s-2 [WCr] or goal t [WCd],
or both
s-1.
Communicate complex ideas effectively, in standard written English, to a general
audience.
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s-2.
[WCr] Respond effectively to editorial feedback from peers, instructors, and/or
supervisors through successive drafts and revisions.
t.
[WCd] Communicate effectively in modes appropriate to a discipline or area of inquiry.
u.
Evaluate and critically assess sources and use the conventions of attribution and citation
correctly.
v.
Analyze and synthesize information and ideas from multiple sources to generate new
insights.
Eligibility
This course is limited to students who have previously taken at least six upper-level
anthropology course. Others may only enroll by permission of Professor Hughes. Thos
of you writing or preparing to write honors theses in cultural anthropology will find the
course particularly useful.
Reading
All of the required reading available as hard copies in the library or as electronic files in
the courses Sakai site. Please note that some of the files on Sakai contain more pages
than I have assigned. Where only a hard copy is available, copyright restrictions have
prevented posting the selection to the web. Regarding the purchase of books, based on
cost, importance to the field, and pages assigned, I would suggest the titles below. In
parentheses, you will find the prices on Amazon as of mid-December.
Cerwonka, Allaine and Liisa Malkki. 2007. Improvising Theory: Process and
Temporality in Ethnographic Fieldwork. Chicago: University of Chicago Press ($20)
Geertz, Clifford. 1988. Works and Lives: The Anthropologist as Author. Stanford, CA:
Stanford University Press ($21.72).
Holding, Ian. 2005. Unfeeling. London: Simon and Schuster ($9.18).
Mintz, Sidney W. 1985. Sweetness and Power: the Place of Sugar in Modern History.
New York: Penguin ($9.87)
Raffles, Hugh. 2010. Insectopedia. New York: Pantheon ($11.98).
West, Harry. 2005. Kupilikula: Governance and the Invisible Realm in Mozambique.
Chicago: University of Chicago Press ($29.91).
Paragraph workshops
On each of these weeks, one student will bring a paragraph of his or her non-fiction
(often a proposal) on flash drive. Emailing it to me beforehand is also OK. During the
last hour, the class will edit this document – with attention to style as well as content.
Writing assignments
Will be explained in greater detail as the semester goes on. They will consist of three-tofive paragraphs. Students will edit this work in pairs or as a group.
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Presentations
Each student will take charge of a week of the course. He or she will be responsible for
contributing thematic questions and summaries and critiques of some or all of the
recommended reading. A superior presentation will accomplish the following objectives:
1. summarize the important points of the reading assigned;
2. relate that reading to previous reading, lectures, and/or discussions in the course;
3. relate that reading to some aspect of our everyday lives and/or to current events;
4. discuss a gap, flaw, or limit to the argument of the author of the reading;
5. pose three questions to the class regarding the reading.
Final paper
By 26 November, each student will submit a 15-page (roughly) term paper on a topic that
has been agreed with Professor Hughes. Prior to that deadline, each student will circulate
an electronic copy to the class by 13 December. In pairs, students will comment on each
other’s paper and engage in general discussion of the papers at special class meetings on
29 November and 6 December.
Grading
The grade is determined as follows:
1. class attendance and participation
2. presentation of reading material
3. improvement in writing assignment #1
4. improvement in writing assignment #2
5. presentation of another student’s final paper
6. final paper
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20%
10%
15%
15%
10%
30%
Syllabus
Week 1 (6 September): introduction
Week 2 (13 September): The “graphy” of ethnography
Geertz, Clifford. 1988. Works and Lives: The Anthropologist as Author. Stanford, CA:
Stanford University Press.
Paragraph workshop #1
The Ethnography Assembled
Week 3 (20 September): Improvisation
Cerwonka, Allaine and Liisa Malkki. 2007. Improvising Theory: Process and
Temporality in Ethnographic Fieldwork. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Pp.
1-104.
Paragraph workshop #2
Week 4 (27 September): the vignette and longer stories
West, Harry. 2005. Kupilikula: Governance and the Invisible Realm in Mozambique.
Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Prologue, Introduction, Part 1, Part 3
(approx. 160pp).
REPLACE WITH MILLER, TALES FROM FACEBOOK??
First writing assignment due and discussed: analysis of secondary sources
Week 5 (4 October): Giving voice
Malkki, Liisa. 1995. Purity and Exile: Violence, Memory, and National Cosmology
among Hutu Refugees in Tanzania. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Chapter 2
(pp. 52-104).
Brown, Karen McCarthy. 1991. Mama Lola: a Vodou Priestess in Brooklyn. Berkeley:
University of California Press. Preface (pp. ix-x), Introduction, Chapters 1-2 (pp. 178).
Revision of first writing assignment
Week 6 (11 October): Numbers, images, and posters
Tufte, Edward. 2006. Beautiful Evidence. Cheshire, CT: Graphics Press. Pp. 122-85.
Turner, Victor. 1967. The Forest of Symbols. Ithaca, New York: Cornell University Press.
Chapter 7 (pp. 151-279).
DO NOT ASSIGN TURNER
Paragraph workshop #3
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Week 7 (18 October): Reflecting backward through the forward
Malinowski, Bronislaw. 1922. Argonauts of the Western Pacific. Pp. 1-25.
Hughes, David M. 2010. Whiteness in Zimbabwe: Race, Landscape, and the problem of
Belonging. New York: Palgrave Macmillan. Preface (pp. xi-xx).
Scheper-Hughes, Nancy. 1992. Death without Weeping: the Violence of Everyday Life in
Brazil. Berkeley: University of California Press. Prologue (pp. x-xiii), Introduction
(pp. 1-30).
Paragraph workshop #4
Busting beyond the Genre
Week 8 (25 October): the short essay
Raffles, Hugh. 2010. Insectopedia. New York: Vintage. Pp. 3-122, 267-297, 318-386.
Question-and-answer session with Hugh Raffles
Paragraph workshop #5
Week 9 (1 November): The commodity history
Mintz, Sidney W. 1985. Sweetness and Power: the Place of Sugar in Modern History.
New York: Penguin. Pp. xv-xxx, 3-52, 74-150.
Second writing assignment due and discussed: analysis of ethnographic material.
Week 10 (8 November): Travelogue
Lévi-Strauss, Claude. 1974. Tristes Tropiques. Trans. by John and Doreen Weightman.
New York: Atheneum. Chapters 1,4,8,10,17,22,23,29,30,31,36,37,38.
Revisions of second writing assignment
Week 11 (15 November): The fieldwork memoir
Behar, Ruth. 1996. The Vulnerable Observer: Anthropology that Breaks your Heart.
Boston: Beacon. Pp. 34-89.
Rabinow, Paul. 1977. Reflections on Fieldwork in Morocco. Berkeley: University of
California Press. Chapter 3 (pp. 31-69).
Rosaldo, Renato. 1989. Culture and Truth: the Remaking of Social Analysis. Boston:
Beacon Press. Chapter 1 (pp. 1-21).
Paragraph workshop #6
Week 12 (Tuesday 20 November): The dark arts of fiction
Hughes, David M. 2010. Whiteness in Zimbabwe: Race, Landscape, and the Problem of
Belonging. New York: Palgrave Macmillan. Chapter 5.
Holding, Ian. 2005. Unfeeling. London: Simon and Schuster.
Narayan, Kirin. 2007. “Tools to shape texts: what creative nonfiction can offer
ethnography.” Anthropology and Humanism 32(2):130-44.
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Paragraph workshop #7
Draft final papers must be circulated by email by Monday 26 November
Week 13 (29 November): The short essay + paper presentations
Tsing, Anna. 2004. “Civilization.” In van Eekelen Begje, et al, eds. Shock and Awe: War
on Words. Santa Cruz, CA: New Pacific Press. Pp. 30-31.
Baum, Dalit and Lisa Rofel. 2004. “Fences.” In van Eekelen Begje, et al, eds. Pp. 63-67.
Tsing, Anna. 2004. “Peace.” In van Eekelen Begje, et al, eds. Pp. 112-14.
Pratt, Mary Louise. 2004. “Punitive expedition.” In van Eekelen Begje, et al, eds. Pp.
124-26.
Pratt, Mary Louise. 2004. “Security.” In van Eekelen Begje, et al, eds. Pp. 140-41.
Scott, James. C. “Streamline.” In van Eekelen Begje, et al, eds. Pp. 146-49.
Hughes, David M. 2012. “Victims with responsibility: debating the per capita measure of
carbon emissions.”
Week 14 (6 December): Paper presentations
Final papers are due as a hardcopy on Thursday 13 December.
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