Anthropology 471
Ethnography through Language
Spring 2006
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Professor Ellen Moodie
Office 391 Davenport Hall
emoodie@uiuc.edu
244-7849
Monday-Wednesday 3-4:20 p.m.
Class 113 Davenport Hall
Office hours Monday 1-3 p.m.
and by appointment
This is a course in ethnography focusing on how cultural and social processes are
revealed in language. We will review a number of ethnographic works that use
language and conversation to illustrate sociocultural processes. The intent of the class is
not to privilege the linguistic aspect of human symbolic capacities but rather to
illustrate its potential as a resource for anthropologists. We will approach this task by
1) reading, discussing and critiquing articles and monographs; 2) carrying out a series of
ethnographic exercises, and 3) developing our own ethnographic projects in the context
of the Ethnography of the University (EOTU) program.
The conceptual frameworks of the projects in the readings listed on this syllabus
vary widely: e.g., agentive vs. structural, macro vs. micro, interactional vs. institutional,
descriptive vs. explanatory, individual vs. collective. But all of the texts demonstrate
how language and discourse can be key means by which society and its traditions are
produced and reproduced, power relations are shaped and histories constructed. By
teasing apart the monographs and articles, and pinpointing the larger social theories by
which they are informed, we begin to imagine alternative possibilities for
conceptualizing research and designing appropriate methods of investigation and
analysis for approaching our own research projects.
The aim of the course is to develop an intellectual tool kit, and, as part of the
EOTU program, to offer an opportunity to begin experimenting with this tool kit
through language-oriented ethnographic projects in the university area. Research
opportunities range widely. You could explore dialogic patterns in dormitory cafeteria
conversations or public meetings of the UIUC faculty senate; analyze live television
sports commentaries on basketball games; scrutinize question-and-answer patterns at
controversial Miller-Comm talks, or interview students about particular experiences in
common, such as local health emergencies or study abroad. The focus should be on
issues important to linguistic analysis: for example, the establishment of authority, the
entextualization of statements and underlying assumptions from other contexts, or the
continuing production of regional, racialized or class differences, all in the context of the
institution of the University of Illinois and its interacting communities of students,
faculty, staff, affiliated business and neighbors.

This syllabus and descriptions have been developed from the original course created by Dr.
Janet Keller of the UIUC Department of Anthropology.
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Class outline
During the first five weeks of class, we will read a series of articles and chapters
on methods and concepts in language-based (psychological, cognitive and linguistic)
anthropology. We will combine these readings (some of which we may divide among us)
with a series of exercises in ethnographic methods (specific instructions to be
distributed in class) in order to build up to larger projects. Each exercise (except the
first) will be posted on-line, on EOTU’s Inquiry Units, part of the iLabs system. You
access the page through the following URL: http://ilabs.inquiry.uiuc.edu/ilab/home/.
(We will demonstrate the use of this system in the January 23 class.)
Through the following ten weeks of the course, we will focus on the monographs.
We will discuss each book during three class periods over two weeks. In the first week,
we will engage each other in providing a forum for understanding the author’s project
and accomplishments. Then, by Tuesday evening at midnight, every student will post
on the web page a one- to two-page single-spaced summary and critique of the assigned
work. This brief may reference the volume itself, related work, relevant theory, and
positions articulated in class. It will discuss methodologies, and suggest ways that the
particular approaches would or would not be useful in our own projects.
During class Wednesday and then the next Monday, we will carry out a critical
assessment of the work. We will ask: where would you go next? Where does the present
study fall short? Where does it provide foundational knowledge on which you want to
build? Finally, on Wednesday of the second week, we will take turns discussing the
development of our particular ethnographic projects, especially in relation to the work
under discussion. We will chart our progress in developing our thinking about
language, ethnography and our own particular projects through field notes.
A more formal four-page proposal of the university ethnographic projects will be
due on Wednesday, February 16. Submitted on your iLabs home page, it will include a
description of the location/community/activity, the proposed problem or question,
research methods to be employed, and proposed hypothesis. (Each student will also turn
in an IRB form.) This project will grow and change over the semester (as recorded on
Inquiry Pages) as our methodological toolkits expand, our understandings of theories
deepen, and our ideas hit the hard reality of ethnographic practice. Every other week
each of us will report on our progress in our projects and bring up problems to be
discussed, drawing from commentaries on Inquiry Units and integrating insights from
the readings. A first draft of conclusions to ethnographic projects will be due April 19,
posted on Inquiry Units, and each of us will comment on each other’s work by the
following week (April 26). Final drafts will be due May 10. The draft and paper will
include extensive discussions of methodology in theory and practice.
This class will build cumulatively over the course of the semester. Comparison
among the works is an important component for constructing a repertoire of theories
and methods that can be selectively employed in research. Designed as an advanced
seminar building on comparative evaluation of projects (both the texts and our own
developing work), the course will require regular attendance (10 percent of the class
grade). I will evaluate contributions to the class as well as the Tuesday-night biweekly
briefs, to be uploaded to the Document Centers (20 percent of the class grade). The
short ethnographic projects carried out over the semester will comprise 30 percent of
the grade, and the final EOTU project and revised proposal the final 40 percent of the
grade (the evaluation will incorporate the progress of Inquiry Unit entries made
through the semester rather than simply assessing the final product).
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Class texts
Articles and chapters are available on-line through the library e-reserve system at
http://web.library.uiuc.edu/ereserves/querycourse.asp. Books are available for
purchase at the Illini Union Bookstore, 809 S. Wright St. (333-2050) and other local
university-area bookstores, and are also on reserve in the Undergraduate Library.
Duranti, Alessandro. From Grammar to Politics: Linguistic Anthropology in a Western
Samoan Village. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1994.
Harding, Susan Friend. The Book of Jerry Falwell: Fundamentalist Language and Politics.
Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2000.
Kulick, Don. Language Shift and Cultural Reproduction: Socialization, Self and Syncretism in
a Papua New Guinean Village (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1992).
Lindquist, Julie. A Place to Stand: Politics and Persuasion in a Working-Class Bar. Oxford:
Oxford University Press, 2002.
Quinn, Naomi, ed. Finding Culture in Talk: A Collection of Methods. New York: Palgrave
McMillan, 2005.
Ries, Nancy. Russian Talk: Culture and Conversation during Perestroika. New York: Cornell
University Press, 1997
Tedlock, Dennis and Bruce Mannheim, eds. The Dialogic Emergence of Culture. Urbana:
University of Illinois Press, 1995.
Fieldwork supplies
A portable tape recorder and several 60- or 90-minute audiotapes
One or two small notebooks, pens and pencils
Weekly syllabus
The reading and assignments are due on the day listed
January 18
Introduction
Ethnography of the University Home Page (EOTU) http://www.eotu.uiuc.edu/
January 23-25
M
Quinn, Naomi. “Introduction.” In Finding Culture in Talk: A Collection of Methods, edited
by Naomi Quinn, 1-34. New York: Palgrave McMillan, 2005.
García, María Elena. “Ethnographic Responsibility and the Anthropological Endeavor:
Beyond Identity Discourse.” Anthropological Quarterly 73 (2) (April 2000): 89-101.
3:30 Demonstration of use of iLabs and Inquiry Pages with EOTU coordinator
Gardner Rogers. Room 338, Davenport Hall.
Assignment #1: Position

If you don’t own a tape recorder, please either buy one or make arrangements with a
friend, relative, or classmate to borrow one. If you have problems, please let me know.
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W
Quinn, Naomi. “How to Reconstruct Schemas People Share, From What They Say.” In
Finding Culture in Talk, 35-81.
D’Andrade, Roy. “Some Methods for Studying Cultural Cognitive Structures.” In
Finding Culture in Talk, 83-104.
Assignment #2: Notes on interview
January 30-February 1
M
Hill, Jane H. “Finding Culture in Narrative,” In Finding Culture in Talk, 157-202.
Strauss, Claudia. “Analyzing Discourse for Cultural Complexity.” In Finding Culture in
Talk, 203-242.
Ethnography of the University Home Page (EOTU) http://www.eotu.uiuc.edu/
Assignment #3: Project brainstorm
W
Duranti, Alessandro. “Transcription: From Writing to Digitized Images.” In Linguistic
Anthropology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997: 122-161.
Ochs, Elinor. “Transcription as Theory.” In Developmental Pragmatics, edited by Elinor
Ochs and Bambi B. Schieffelin. New York: Academic Press, 1979: 43-72.
Assignment #4: Transcription
February 6-8
M
Mannheim, Bruce and Dennis Tedlock. “Introduction.” In The Dialogic Emergence of
Culture, edited by Dennis Tedlock and Bruce Mannheim. Urbana: University of
Illinois Press, 1995.
Attinasi, John and Paul Friedrich. “Dialogic Breakthrough: Catalysis and Synthesis in
Life-Changing Dialogue.” In The Dialogic Emergence of Culture, 33-53.
Assignment #5: Dialogism
W
Hill, Jane H. “The Voice of Don Gabriel: Responsibility and Self in a Modern Mexicano
Narrative.” In The Dialogic Emergence of Culture, 97-147.
McDermott, R. P. and Henry Tylbor. “On the Necessity of Collusion in Conversation.”
In The Dialogic Emergence of Culture, 218-236.
Assignment #6: Voices
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February 13-15
M
Morgan, Marcyliena H. “Community.” In Key Terms in Language and Culture, edited by
Alessandro Duranti, 31-33. Malden, Mass.: Blackwell Publishers, 2001.
Morgan, Marcyliena H. “The African-American Speech Community: Reality and
Sociolinguists.” In Linguistic Anthropology: A Reader, edited by Alessandro Duranti,
74-94. Malden, Mass.: Blackwell Publishers, 2001.
Assignment #7 Community and identity
W
Assignment #8: Proposal and IRB form
February 20-22
M-W
Harding, Susan Friend. The Book of Jerry Falwell: Fundamentalist Language and
Politics. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2000.
February 28-March 1
M Harding continued
W Project discussions
March 6-8
M-W
Duranti, Alessandro. From Grammar to Politics: Linguistic Anthropology in a Western
Samoan Village. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1994.
March 13-15
M Duranti continued
W Project discussions
SPRING BREAK
March 27-29
M-W
Kulick, Don. Language Shift and Cultural Reproduction: Socialization, Self and Syncretism in
a Papua New Guinean Village. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1992.
April 3-5
M Kulick continued
W Project discussions
April 10-12
M-W
Ries, Nancy. Russian Talk: Culture and Conversation during Perestroika. New York: Cornell
University Press, 1997.
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April 17-19
M Ries continued
W Ethnographic projects due (first draft)
April 24-26
M-W
Lindquist, Julie. A Place to Stand: Politics and Persuasion in a Working-Class Bar. Oxford:
Oxford University Press, 2002.
May 1-3
M Lindquist continued
W Ethnographic project presentations
May 8
Ethnographic projects and revised proposals due
OPTIONAL ARTICLES
Anderson, Kathryn and Dana C. Jack. “Learning to Listen: Interview Techniques and
Analysis.” In Women’s Words: The Feminist Practice of Oral History, edited by
Sherna Berger Gluck and Daphne Patai, 11-26. New York and London:
Routledge, 1991.
Briggs, Charles. “Interview.” In Key Terms in Language and Culture, edited by
Alessandro Duranti, 132-135. Malden, Mass.: Blackwell Publishers.
Farnell, Brenda, and Laura R. Graham. “Discourse-Centered Methods.” In Handbook of
Methods in Cultural Anthropology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997:
122-161.
Spitulnik, Debra. “The Social Circulation of Media Discourse and the Mediation of
Communities.” In Linguistic Anthropology: A Reader, edited by Alessandro Duranti.
Malden, Mass.: Blackwell Publishers, 2001.
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