ANTH 2 FINAL PROJECT
			FINAL PROJECT: ETHNOGRAPHY                              For your final project, I would like you to try your hand at a ‘mini-ethnography;’ in other words, I would like you to engage in participant-observation in order to learn something about a local subculture or about the cultural significance of particular local rituals/events/practices.  See below for details. Make sure you can feasibly complete your project within the course of the semester.                     *1. 1-2 page TOPIC PROPOSAL  (25 points): a) Identify your subject population (include anything you already know or expect re age, sex, ethnicity, socioeconomic status, or any other important defining characteristics…)  E.g. you might decide to do your ‘fieldwork’ with a local religious community (the Quaker Friends, the local Hindu community, Santa Cruz’s ‘skate church,’ etc.) in order to gain further understanding of the beliefs/values shared within that community, you might spend several days at a Farmer’s Market in order to gain insights into how the market operates as an ‘alternative’ exchange system, you might volunteer at a local homeless shelter, you might take part in Dia de Los Muertes festivities, you might analyze the culture of your own workplace, you might participate in a rally with gay/lesbian activists, you might join a biker or surfer club, you might sit in on city council meetings, etc..! b) Briefly describe your plan of action, including a rough timetable for collecting and writing up data.  Spend some time thinking about ethnographic strategies.  Participant observation will be your primary methodology—but will you also tape record interviews with people?  Will you carry around a notebook or take notes afterwards?  How will you approach your subject population, and how will you explain your presence and obtain permission to study them? How will you preserve your informants’ confidentiality? Remember that who YOU are will make a difference to your experience.  It is important to be aware of how YOUR age/sex/class/ethnicity might influence the ways in which your subject population responds to you.   Don’t worry if not everybody is open to you—this in and of itself can teach you something.  Feel free to write about any/all of this when you compose your final paper, and feel free to use your own experience as additional data. c) Identify potential problems or areas of possible concern, and, if possible, tell me what you plan to do in order to take care of such problems or areas of concern (and/or ask my advice) d) Briefly clarify why you have chosen to study the group you will be studying, and, if possible, briefly  identify ways in which your project might be important--what might we learn of larger significance here? (don’t worry if you aren’t sure; this should become clearer later on) e) Ask questions!  What would you like feedback on?  How can I help you?     *2. FINAL PAPER      (1500 + wds; 5-7 pgs, standard font; 1 “ margins; 150 points) Once you start your research, be sure to take good notes.  Include notes about everything, although you will ultimately need to narrow down your topic to some aspect of your work you can reasonably discuss in a term paper.  Ultimately, good ethnography entails both detailed descriptions of the people and practices being studied (who exactly—with respect to sex/ethnicity/class/age etc.—is saying and/or doing what, and when and where?) and critical analysis of such ethnographic observations (Why do people say they are doing what they do?  How might outsiders interpret/respond to their practices?  How do their practices reflect particular beliefs and values, of which they may or may not be aware?).  I will grade your final paper based on both of these criteria.  I also expect some explanation of why your work is important—how would you respond to the question “So what?” (in other words, what larger insights have you gleaned from your research?).  See the next page for organizational suggestions, and feel free to talk with me if you have questions about how to “write up” your findings. *3. PRESENTATION  (25 points). You will need to prepare a presentation of some aspect of your research.  I will ask you to sign up for presentation dates at the beginning of class. You can do any number of things—e.g. create a poster, create a photo book, share audio or video clips, or simply prepare a BRIEF (5-10 minute) talk.  In all cases, it is important to get informant permission if you are showing images or using audio that may identify informants.  If your informants prefer to remain anonymous, you can still submit photos/video of aspects of a ritual or space that don’t contain people, or you can create a presentation based on your own experiences (difficulties you ran into, ways in which you overcame ethnocentrism, etc., etc.).  Your presentation DOES NOT have to be on or about whatever you write in your paper itself—it can be about ANY part of your research you think might be interesting or worth sharing.  You can even discuss research in progress. ORGANIZATIONAL SUGGESTIONS      (feel free to do your own thing—these are only suggestions): 1. You might organize your paper around the discussion of a particular incident that has changed the way you understand your informants.  Think about your preconceptions and expectations of your subject population, and about why and how such preconceptions have been altered during actual interactions with real people belonging to your subject population.  What have you learned—what do you know now that you didn’t know before beginning the assignment? (“Eating Christmas in the Kalahari” and “Shakespeare in the Bush” provide good models of this sort of essay) 2.  You might focus on the very process of ethnography itself—on the benefits and problems of participant observation (or interviewing) as a primary methodology.  Be self-reflexive—how have your own actions (and your social identity) affected the ways in which people have responded to you?  What issues of mistrust or misunderstanding might have arisen during your interactions with your informants, and why (be sure to detail specific incidents and examples if you choose this option)?  What might you have done differently to minimize such difficulties—if anything?  And, most of all, what have you learned from the process of trying to bridge cultural differences in the first place? 3.  We have talked a bit about issues of ethical responsibility and nonintervention.  While such issues won’t come up for everyone in the class, some of you may run into ethically sticky situations, or may be faced with informants in need of (or even asking for) your help.  If so, you might well choose to write about any ethical dilemmas involved, and your decisions with respect to such quandaries.  Be sure to detail the problems you run into, clearly explaining both the possible courses of action open to you, and the rationale behind your decision to respond in a particular way.  Again, what have you learned in the process? ***I would be very happy to help you narrow down a topic and/or discuss your progress/possible research or writing strategies.  Please see me if you have ANY questions about the ethnography assignment, or even if you just want to talk about your findings! Thanks to both Dr. Karen Fjelstad and Ruth Laird for sharing ethnographic project descriptions and ideas