Fieldwork Assignment 2 (Writing Assignment 3)

Introduction to Cultural Anthropology

Due the last day of class, June 11

The focus of this fieldwork assignment is your choice. The purpose of the assignment is to help you with your final paper. In the last assignment - the research assignment - you hopefully found a fieldwork research/theory focus. If you did not find such a focus, you will need to find one quickly. If you need someone with whom to discuss your ideas, you are welcome to email me at .

We can also talk before or after classor on Tuesdays and Thursdays after 12:30 p.m., 23, room 206. Let me know if you’re coming so I’m sure to be there. This assignment is about gathering more fieldwork observation data in the context of your focus.

A. Steps for the fieldwork portion of this assignment:

1)Take notes about what you see and hear. What are relevant examples of conversations, stories, behaviors, incidents … anything you observe about your culture group.

2)Consider how to get an emic perspective. Ask informal interview questions. Write about your informants’ perspectives. Consider putting together a small, informal survey if that would help you answer a particular question or add to your knowledge base.

3)Combine your new fieldwork observations with past observations and decide which examples will be useful for your final paper.

B. Steps for the writing portion of this assignment:

For the writing part of this assignment (the part that you will turn in on March 12) you might begin organizing your data using some or all of the following approaches. The more that you do for this paper, the easier it will be to write your final paper. This is basically a brainstorming, organizing your thoughts paper after you have done more fieldwork.

Possible brainstorming approaches:

  1. Describe in some detail a few of your chosen fieldwork examples.
  2. Describe what you have learned about the group’s culture from each example.
  3. Describe how the examples relate to your theoretical/topic focus.

Consider how the comparison and theoretical articles you collected in the research assignment can be applied to your new and old fieldwork observations.

- What can you infer simply from your own individual analysis?

- What can you infer from comparison with other culture groups?

- What can you infer from applying a theoretical concept(s)?

This paper can be as short as 3 pages or as long as 6 pages, depending on how much work you want to do towards your final paper. Ideally,much of this paper will be incorporated into the final paper.

It is essential that when you use ideas from your academic sources, cite them within the text and create a works cited page or use the footnote approach. In anthropology, the more fieldwork examples and data you have to illustrate what you’ve observed, and the more you back up what you say with formal definitions, research comparisons, and academic concepts, the more depth and authority your paper has.

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