ETHNOGRAPHY
Research Project, Anth 5 Winter 2011
100 points
California, and especially the Bay Area, offers a wide variety of religious, philosophic and spiritual movements.
Choose a classmate, family member, someone you know, friend, or even make a new friend, to be your primary
or “key” informant, and become an anthropologist! Firstly, look to yourself. How has your worldview been
colored by culture? Identify your morals, values, (i.e. “rights and wrongs”) and any biases that might reflect on
the religion/spirituality you will study.
Make sure that your key informant has a religious or spiritual outlook that is different than yours! What
religion/philosophy/spiritual movement do they belong to? What were your thoughts on this movement before
you began this study? Did your study help you to a better understanding of the movement? Did you use “etic”
or “emic” analysis (or both) and how effective did you find these methods? Where and by whom is this
movement practiced? What are its rituals, credos, myths, symbols, taboos, deities/higher powers? What are its
origins? How does it tie into/affect/is affected by the politics, law, economy, ethics, history, literature, art,
music, funerary practices, diet, sex and gender of the encompassing society? Conduct interviews, become a
participant, if only for a day. Be aware of ethnocentrism; describe and understand but do not judge. Study what
people believe, not whether or not what they believe is true.
For your Ethnography, you will most likely be focusing on a very specific aspect of a big issue (i.e. why do so
many believe in a god/higher power)? While you may not come up with "the" answer, try and reach toward new
questions and new perspectives on a problem. Support your ideas by well-chosen evidence; ideas are linked
with other ideas, sources with other sources. An "A" Ethnography has a richly developed central idea; shows a
detailed understanding of the subject; has sound organization; has few if any grammatical or mechanical errors.
A lively, original voice speaks; it has something special to say, says it well, and supports it fully.
Due Date: Tuesday, March 15th
Requirements:
 6 pages, double spaced, 12 pt. font, one-inch margins.
 Clear structure
o Introduction, Guiding Question, Thesis Statement, Body Paragraphs, Conclusion
 Underlined Thesis Statement
 Interviews
 Fieldnotes
 Documents
 Footnotes
 Bibliography (at least 5 non-internet sources, i.e. books, periodicals, magazines, pamphlets,
journals).
Ethnography Grading Rubric
Anth 5 Winter 2011
15 pts
o
Reflexivity: 5 pts.
 A discussion on your own background: Recognizing your own cultural position and how it may affect your
research.
o
Guiding Question: 5 pts
 What questions about your subject’s religion/spirituality do you want to answer?
o
Thesis Statement: 5 pts
 After conducting your Ethnographic research, what is your answer? What will your paper be trying to say?
•Body Paragraphs 20 pts
o
Background Research: 5 pts
 BRIEF! This section is only meant to place your fieldwork in context. Here is where you discuss most of your
5 book/journal/magazine (non-internet!) sources. Please do not plagiarize! Read your sources and then put
them away, summarizing them via your own memory. Insert quotations or passages where and when necessary
(creating proper in-text citations).
o
Fieldwork: 15 pts
 How your fieldwork helped to create your thesis. I am specifically looking for:
 Questioning: Asking important questions and raising debatable issues.
 Fairness of Presentation: VERY IMPORTANT!!! Acknowledging/clarifying relevant contrary
opinions, competing interpretations, or alternative points of view and, where appropriate, accepting
multiplicity (rather than black and white thinking). Your readers must be provided with enough
counter-evidence and data to draw their own conclusions without simply relying on your
interpretations.
 Arguments: for your thesis are coherent. Your stance/position is supported with relevant reasons and
ample evidence.
 Ideas: are organized into appropriate and coherent patterns (titles, sub-headings).
 Evidence: Interviews!!!, excerpts from fieldnotes, quotes, information from documents, pictures,
diagrams, etc are included and interpreted in fair and accurate ways. Validity and credibility of sources
and material used for support or evidence (i.e. YouTube, 2 nd/3rd hand sources, etc.) is evaluated.
 Data: How many people you interviewed, how many times you visited, how much material you have
is organized either in charts or clearly within the paper.
•Conclusion 15 pts
o
General: 5 pts
 Implications and Consequences of your Thesis are addressed. Did your Thesis prove correct? Why or why
not?
 Ideas, opinions and information from both your written sources and your personal (Interview) sources are
synthesized and reconciled.
o
Placing your individual study in a wider context: 5 pts
 A potential problem within the realm of Anthropology that you may have uncovered during this assignment is
assessed or solved. What other research can be done to help solve this problem?
 Human Universals: What did you uncover?
o
Social Awareness and Self Perception: 5 pts
 Demonstrating how this assignment, and the concepts learned in class have helped to orient yourself, your
values, your knowledge and your beliefs within worldwide human culture.
•General 30 pts
o
Includes In-Text Sources: 10 pts
 Texts and resources are documented appropriately (avoiding plagiarism). Uses a uniform style for all in-text
references.
o
Terms/Ideas from class synthesized: 5 pts
 Demonstrates an understanding of the terms, concepts and principles brought up in class and the text.
o
Writing (grammar/punctuation/style): College-level: 10 pts
o
Exhibits insight and independent thinking/original ideas: 5 pts.
•Appendices 20 pts.
o
Bibliography (at least 5 non-internet sources): 10 pts.
o
Fieldnotes: 10 pts
•Introduction
Grand Total: 100 pts
Ethnography
In Brief
Ethnography is two things: (1) the fundamental research method of cultural anthropology, and (2) the written text
produced to report ethnographic research results.
Ethnography as method seeks to answer central anthropological questions concerning the ways of life of living human
beings.
When doing ethnographic research, we strive to be objective. However, objectivity is often elusive because we all have
our own backgrounds and identities that affect how the research is done and reported. So keep the principles of cultural
relativism in mind: There are many truths. There is no one standpoint from which to judge all cultures. Look to yourself
and any biases you may bring to your research.
To back up your conclusions, you need to supply fieldnotes, interviews and documents.
Generally, ethnographic research takes place in depth and over a great deal of time, often months or years for professional
ethnographers.
Guiding question
One of the first things we need early on in order to conduct a successful ethnographic project is an appropriate guiding
question. Having a guiding question before beginning fieldwork is a good idea because it gives you some way to focus
your attention productively in early visits to your fieldsite. This question might change in the course of the research as
more is learned; this happens often and can be a step towards especially insightful research!
Guiding questions are aimed at the basic point of ethnography: gaining the world view of a group of people.
Common formats for guiding questions might be:
–How do members of a particular group perceive of or understand a certain social or cultural phenomenon? (This
is often seen through behavior of some kind.)
•Example: How do the Unarians perceive of UFO’s?
–How is a certain social or cultural practice socially constructed among members of a certain group?
•Example: How is communion socially constructed among churchgoers in contemporary Catholicism?
Modern ethnographies focus on a central guiding question that connects the local fieldsite to larger anthropological
questions about how culture, or in our case religion, works. Guiding questions should encode larger questions
regarding culture or social practice within them.
Thesis statement
As an academic paper, an ethnographic paper needs a thesis statement as its foundation. This statement must be
persuasively presented and argued in order for the paper to be successful. In ethnographic papers, the thesis sentence is
often the answer to the guiding question. In other words, the thesis is the simply stated conclusion of your research.
Thesis statements are most commonly found in the first paragraph of the paper.
•A
thesis should do more than introduce the topic or announce what the paper will discuss. The thesis should lure
the audience in by briefly stating the claim that the paper will focus on, with the contradiction, new information,
or surprise it contains taking center stage.
•A
thesis must not be either completely obvious or deal with common knowledge on a subject. Good theses
should grab reader interest by announcing something that has the possibility of changing people's minds.
•A
thesis must announce as simply and clearly as possible what kinds of evidence will be necessary to prove it.
These elements constitute an outline of what strands of argument the paper will present in its defense.
Once a claim has been asserted, it is necessary to put forth an argument which proves it to the reader. Your thesis
statement should contain a mini-outline of the paper; this outline consists of several sub-claims for which evidence must
be provided. How do you know what you claimed to know in the thesis sentence?
Excerpts from the data gathered should be interwoven in your body paragraphs as proof for your conclusions. It is
important to break this down for readers exactly how the evidence presented leads to the points asserted in the paper.
Fieldnotes
Fieldnotes should be written as soon as possible after leaving the fieldsite, immediately if possible. Even though we
may not think so when we are participating and observing, we are all very likely to forget important details unless we
write them down very quickly. Since this may be very time-consuming, you should plan to leave a block of time for
writing just after leaving the research context. Turn in your fieldnotes exactly as you originally wrote them. Do not
tidy them up, I want to see your methodology. Good fieldnotes usually include:
o Date, time, and place of observation
o Specific facts, numbers, details of what happens at the site
o Sensory impressions: sights, sounds, textures, smells, tastes
o Personal responses to the fact of recording fieldnotes
o Specific words, phrases, summaries of conversations, and insider language
o Questions about people or behaviors at the site for future investigation
o Page numbers to help keep observations in order
Ethics in Ethnographic Research
Since ethnographic research takes place among real human beings, there are a number of special ethical concerns to be
aware of before beginning. In a nutshell, researchers must make their research goals clear to the members of the
community where they undertake their research and gain the informed consent of their consultants to the research
beforehand. It is also important to learn whether the group would prefer to be named in the written report of the research
or given a pseudonym and to offer the results of the research if informants would like to read it.
Most of all, researchers must be sure that the research does not harm or exploit those among whom the research is
done.
Documents
There are a variety of kinds of documents which might be relevant for your ethnography. Generally, these documents can
be divided into three categories. Be absolutely clear in the final paper how the documents used fit into these
categories!
Documents produced by the people you are studying. These kinds of documents can help us learn how the group in
question expresses itself to either insiders or outsiders. What is written about and how? Why would this document be
produced? Who will read or use it, and how? What isn't included that could be? What does it tell you, either directly or
indirectly, about your guiding question?
Documents produced by people somehow like the people you are studying. These kinds of documents can help us learn
about general issues which might affect our specific fieldsite.
Documents produced about the people in you are studying. These kinds of documents can help you to place your group in
a wider religious/spiritual/global context. We can learn more about what kinds of constrictions are placed upon the people
in our site, prejudices against them, privileges they are accorded, or their reputations among certain other groups of
people. Useful sources of demographic information or documentation of historical events might also be available.
Possible documents include: budgets, advertisements, work descriptions, annual reports, memos, correspondence,
informational brochures, teaching materials, newsletters, websites, recruitment or orientation packets, contracts, records of
court proceedings, posters, minutes of meetings, menus, and many other kinds of written items.
The Interview(s)
Ethnographers supplement what they learn through participant observation by interviewing people who can help them
understand the setting or group they are researching. Interviews provide a chance to learn how people reflect directly
on behavior, circumstances, identity, events, and other things. This can be very valuable in fulfilling the main goal of
ethnography: gaining an insider's perspective.
An important part of the interview is establishing rapport with the informant. The best way to do this is by being a good
listener. It is crucial for ethnographers to listen far more than we talk in interviews. Conveying genuine interest to the
interviewee and doing what we can to make the other person socially comfortable are also high priorities. We should also
endeavor to choose settings where our informants can relax and talk openly. Depending in the circumstances of the
fieldsite or the informant's position within it, it may be important to conduct the interview in a private place. Be sure that
the informant knows that the interview is data for a research project and understands that their information may be shared
in class.
Plan open-ended questions which require paragraph answers. If the informant goes off on a tangent in answering the
question, listen for a while instead of immediately insisting on the prepared agenda. This often leads to very useful
information that we didn't know was needed! If it seems like nothing useful is coming from the tangent, find a way to
gracefully re-direct the conversation.
If you would like to tape the interview, make sure to ask for consent!
Consider trying "respondent validation", or explaining your developing conclusions to your informants. The informants
might be in a position to share additional things which help to confirm or complicate what you have learned.