N. C. STATE UNIVERSITY
ETHNOGRAPHIC FIELD SCHOOL
Panajachel,
SYLLABUS
Instructors: Dr. Tim
Wallace, Associate Professor of Anthropology,
Ms.
Carla Pezzia,
PROGRAM & COURSE
OBJECTIVES
The goal of this
course/program is to provide students with practical training and experience in
sociocultural anthropology fieldwork (participant observation methods, interviewing,
research design, sampling, coding, data analysis and ethics) as they study the
anthropology of tourism in a practical context. As part of the course work,
students will be participating in an ethnographic field school in Guatemala
that focuses on the anthropology of tourism. The course combines classroom
study with an actual ethnographic research practicum. Throughout the seven
weeks you will live with Guatemalan families, attend classes, and undertake a
complex research project evaluating the impact of tourism on local communities
and the environment in general. Students will spend some time in classes, but
most of the time will be spent doing your research projects and writing
fieldnotes, journal notes and reports. In the evenings you are expected to
write about two hours worth of fieldnotes/journal notes. You will produce a
minimum of 60-75 pages of text material as a result of your research and
assignments. Finally, prior to departure you must write at minimum a twenty
page report on your research before departing Guatemala. The final report
turned in before departure must be well thought out and conceived and
presented, but could be revised and re-submitted after returning home. No student will receive a passing grade
without completing a twenty page minimum final report.
By the end of the course
you should be able to design a research plan, apply appropriate fieldwork
techniques, understand how theories in the anthropology of tourism are applied
to a particular field site, write a final report summarizing the significance
of the data collected, and understand ethical issues involved in fieldwork. In
addition, you will know the principal theories of anthropological tourism
research; how tourism impacts local culture, society and environment; and how
applied anthropologists study and assess tourism impacts. You will also see the
role of tourism in human societies from both the host and guest perspectives.
Finally, students will have learned about the culture and society of the Lake
Atitlán region of Guatemala.
REQUIRED SOFTWARE:
It is essential that you download a
software program called,
TEXTS
Pre-departure Readings: Two of them deal with Guatemalan Maya communities we
will be visiting.
1.
John P. Hawkins and W.P. Adams, Roads to Change in Maya Guatemala.
Norman OK: U. of Oklahoma Press, 2005. (This book consists of papers from an
ethnographic field school that took place in two communities not far from Lake
Atitlán. Lots of good ideas about Maya culture and possible research topics. )
(Recommended reading.)
2.
Daniel Wilkinson, Silence on the Mountain:
Studies of Terror, Betrayal, and Forgetting in Guatemala. Boston: Houghton,
Mifflin, 2002. ISBN: 0618221395. (Moving, very well written book, almost like a
novel, that discusses the history and consequences of Guatemala’s 30 year civil
war which has left an indelible imprint on the current generation of
Guatemalans. (Required reading)
3.
Edward F. Fischer & Carol Hendrickson, Tecpán
Guatemala: A Modern Maya Town in Global and Local Context. Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 2003. (A good
update on current issues as it intersects with a local, Indian community, not
far from Lake Atitlán, and is a town we will visit.) (Required)
Readings
in Guatemala: (These you need to
bring with you.)
On
Field Methods:
4.
Kathleen M.
DeWalt and Billie R. DeWalt, Participant Observation: A Guide for
Fieldworkers. Walnut Creek, CA: Altamira Press, 2002. (inexpensive, basic
details of how to do fieldwork.)
5.
Michael
Angrosino, Doing Cultural Anthropology:
Projects in Ethnographic Data Collection, 2ed. Long Grove, IL: Waveland Press, 2007.
6.
Andrew Gardner and David M. Hoffman. Dispatches from the Field: Neophyte Ethnographers in a Changing World.
Long Grove, IL: Waveland Press. 2006. (Short stories of fieldwork by PhD
candidates.)
7.
Erve Chambers, Native
Tours: The Anthropology of Travel and Tourism. Prospect Heights, IL:
Waveland Press, 2000. (Inexpensive,
basic, short, but very good text on tourism.) (Required)
Not
required but recommended:
8.
Robert Carlson, War
for the Heart and Soul of a Highland Mayan Town. Austin, TX: U. of Texas
Press, 1997. (This is about Santiago Atitlán, once of the main communities in
the area.)
9.
Walter Little, Maya in the Marketplace, Austin, TX: University of Texas Press, 2004.
(tourism, globalization and identity, market vendors in Antigua.)
10.
The seven volumes
of papers from previous years (available on site or from the website.) There
are many, many books and articles on Guatemalan Maya communities. We will have a pretty good selection of them
in Panajachel for you to loan out when you get there. Also, there is a good
bookstore in Panajachel where you can buy some of the best known
ethnographies. They take VISA/MCard,
too.
REQUIREMENTS &
EVALUATION
Grading: A,B,C,D,F (A = 100-90; B= 89-80; C=79-80; D=69-60;
F=below 60)
1. Participation (15%)
in classroom meetings; and informal interim reports and discussions
2. Work on
individual research assignments (20%). Please check with instructors for
specific due dates for the assignments
3. Fieldnotes,
Field Log and Field Journal (60-75 pp of fieldnotes/journal) (25%)
4. Final research
report - 20 pages (40%) (You must turn
in a final report of at least 20 pages prior departure or you will receive a
failing grade.
Attendance: Attendance is required at all class meetings.
Deduction of final grade points will begin after missing the second class.
Assignments: There are a
series of research assignments required of each of you during the program. A
new one is assigned at every class, though they will not all be due at the next
class. Some take longer than others.
FIELDNOTES/JOURNAL: COPIES
TENTATIVE SCHEDULE
|
Date |
Topic |
Assignment |
Reading |
|
5/16 |
Arrival to the hotel in Guatemala City
and brief orientation |
Assigned
in this class for the next class. |
Assigned
for this class. |
|
5/17 |
Travel to Panajachel and Lake Atitlán;
orientation to the field site, the local culture, the fieldwork, and the
issues |
|
|
|
5/18 |
Travel to locations and towns of home
stay, first night with host families |
|
|
|
Class 1 5/19 |
Home stay issues, services, clinics,
internet, health, culture shock and coping; program rules and polices A.
Nature Reserve and lecture on the culture, biology, and geology of B. Pre-departure reading overview C. Discussion of syllabus and assignments |
Assignment 1: Verbal Snapshot |
Predeparture reading: Wilkinson Chambers Hawkins and Adams Gardner and Hoffman, 1-32 |
|
Note: The group will be divided for
the first two weeks into two smaller groups and meet on alternate days, but
the material will be the same for both groups. |
|||
|
Class 2 5/20 & 5/21 |
A.
Guiding Principles of Participation Observation B.
Mayans Past and Present --Kaqchiquel, Tz’utujil, and Quiche’ |
Assignment 2: Transportation
Observation |
LeCompte & Schensul DeWalt: Ch 1 Little: Ch 1 & 5 Fischer (predeparture reading): Ch 1-3 |
|
Class 3 5/22 & 5/23 |
A.
Research Paradigms and Conceptualizing Research --Fieldnotes B. Local
Mayans and the Civil War |
Assignment 3: Active Listening |
LeCompte & Schensul DeWalt: Ch 8 Carlsen (handout): Ch 6 & 7 Fischer (predeparture reading): Ch 4-7 |
|
5/25 |
FIELD TRIP TO CHICHICASTENANGO |
Tipica
market (optional) |
|
|
Class 4 5/26 & 5/27 |
A.
Learning to be a Participant Observer --Entering the
field B. Globalization
and tourism |
Assignment 4: Observing
and analyzing the landscape |
LeCompte & Schensul:
Ch 4-5 DeWalt: Ch 2-4,
Appendix 3 Johnson |
|
Class 5 5/28 &
5/29 |
First
draft of research project outline due and class discussion of it A.
Interviewing, Fieldnotes, Coding, and Sampling --The
problem of validity and reliability B.
Tourism concepts, development concepts, and identity |
Assignment 5: Tourist
Survey |
Chambers Bernard |
|
Class 6 5/30 & 5/31 |
A. Ethics in Research B. Data gathering techniques including RAP, pilesorts, oral/life
histories, archival data, ethnographic surveys, time allocation C. Tourism, Development, Place and Performance |
Assignment 6: Market study of
"your" town where you are working |
Fleuhr-Lobban DeWalt: Ch 9-10, Appendix 2
& 4 |
|
6/1-6/4 |
FIELD TRIP TO |
|
Little: Ch 4 |
|
Class 7 6/6 & 6/7 |
A.
Post-modern and symbolic ideas in ethnographic
research B. Tourism
planning |
Assignment 7: Cognitive
Mapping among members of the local community Assignment 8: Life history
(do a life history of a local older man or woman) |
Wolcott (handout) |
|
6/9 – 6/14 |
Fieldwork and occasional small group
meetings |
Assignment 9: Time allocation (a
systematic observation technique) |
|
|
6/15 |
FIELD TRIP TO PATZUN |
Corpus Cristi (optional) |
|
|
6/16-6/21 |
Small group meetings to help and
complete research projects
Discussion of progress in the projects and data collection; More on data
collection, data analysis and report writing 1. Gathering oral literature 2. How to be a collaborative listener 3. Being descriptive in fieldnotes for aid in writing
final report 4. Discussion of assignments 5. Analyzing fieldnotes |
Assignment 10: Free-List and pile
Sorts |
|
|
6/22 |
Zip Line tour to Reserva Natural
Atitlán |
(optional) |
|
|
6/23- 6/28 |
Small group meetings to review
progress on research (as needed) |
|
|
|
6/30-7/3 |
Small group discussions on final
write-up of project 1. Writing the final report: tips, techniques,
suggestions, requirements 2. Protecting the informant's identity 3. Responsibilities to the local community, clients,
colleagues and the discipline 4. Evaluating the validity of the data for significant
conclusions 5. Executive summaries and making research useful |
|
|
|
7/4 & 5 |
Power Point presentations |
|
|
|
7/6 |
Farewell Luncheon (11:30-3:00) |
|
|
|
7/7 |
Departure from Panajachel |
|
|
ASSIGNMENTS
Assignment
No. 1, WRITING A VERBAL SNAPSHOT
Idea: Your fieldnotes are a rich source of data from which
you can select key details to begin to create verbal snapshots for your
project.
Strategy: Choose a small portion of your field site, in this
case, the house and surrounding neighborhood in which you are living, to
describe for this exercise.
Description: Describe in your fieldnotes all the detail you can
about the house (in particular) in which you live (in this exercise, the
residents of the house are not the principal focus). Include the walls, paint,
structure, textures, smells, sounds, weather, colors, lights, shapes,
furniture, conditions, bathrooms, closets, porches, etc. and anything else that
might be pertinent. If the yard is part of your gaze, then include it
also. Contrast your house with that of
the nearest neighbors (appear to be poorer or wealthier than others, but on
what grounds do you decide?).
Categorize: Put the items you describe in categories at first,
then write more fully about them. Note that this exercise does NOT ask you to
compare what you see with back home. Just describe what you see, feel, hear,
taste, etc.
Summarize: Write up what you have observed in your fieldnotes,
and be prepared to discuss them bring it to class and be prepared to read from
it. Include a separate paragraph or two discussing your own impressions and
feelings about living there.
Note: Categorizing will help
you write your description, and it will also help you fill in the missing data
in your fieldwork. Noticing the gaps helps you determine where and in what ways
your data might be incomplete. Do you need different sensory details? What
about the setting at different times of day? What details do you need more of?
What did you forget to take in?
Writing a place description
involves more than taking an inventory or listing details. Your description
needs to suggest the overall sense of place you are trying to understand. It
should also mirror your informants’ perspectives as well--that is, the details
that your informants draw attention to and that they think are distinctive of
the village. Sometimes, one small detail from your data can expand into a rich
image that reflects a dominant theme within a culture. Since one of the goals
of fieldwork is to include your informants' world view, descriptions of field
sites should ring true both to outsiders and insiders.
Assignment
No. 2, TRANSPORTATION OBSERVATIONS
Transportation is one of the
key infrastructural elements of all communities and transportation is
particularly complex around Lake Atitlán for both residents and tourists.
Transportation has contributed greatly to making Panajachel the key gateway to
the rest of the lake communities. It deserves to be a part of every
ethnographic study. The point of this
assignment is to hone your observational skills and develop concepts for
turning observational data into pattern interpretations which could become
hypotheses. Anthropological
investigation moves from empirical data to patterns to hypotheses to
theory.
Protocol:
1. Locate, identify and describe the key locations for
entry and exit to the community (docks, bus-stops, pickup stops, etc.)
2. After finding and briefly describing each location,
and the best time to observe, choose one with lots of activity and stay there
for at least two, consecutive hours.
3. Locate and identify the key actors (drivers,
assistants, launch overseers, skippers, "hangars-on", merchants who
provide food for the passengers, tourists, drivers, captains, police, etc. at
the transportation location.
4. Observe carefully who waits, gets on, gets off, where
they go and where they come from and what they do at the stop while waiting or
when the transportation arrives. Make extensive descriptive notes detailing
what happens here.
5. Observe abusive or courteous behaviors engaged in by
the actors as well.
6. Try to find out what kind of people go by bus or
lancha or pickup and why and what kind of people drive them. (Are the drivers
owners of the vehicle?)
7. Describe any patterns of behavior or rules that seem
to be predominant in these situations. For example, how to do people cue for
getting on, or waving them down or what does the assistant do to get people on
and off after stopping or when loading passengers? What does the driver/pilot
do when approaching the stop? What kind of communication occurs among
driver/pilot and assistant, among assistant and non-passengers, with
passengers, among passengers, etc.? What attitudes do drivers/helpers have
toward passengers? Are all drivers/pilots/helpers
the same in their communication patterns?
Analysis and Write-up
Describe the scene(s)
carefully in your fieldnotes. Then write up an analysis fieldnote of behavioral
rules, and indicate what more would need to be done to make the study more
complete, valid and/or accurate. Write
in your fieldnotes an analysis of the methods you used what you have learned,
and be prepared to discuss it in class.
Discuss in class how you could make these patterns become hypotheses and
how they could be studied more systematically in the future if you were to make
this a focal point of your research.
Assignment
No. 3, ACTIVE LISTENING:
Idea: To develop interviewing skills, improve listening
skills, make cross-cultural comparisons, and practice fieldnote taking.
Strategy: Try to
interview someone in your household, but if that is not possible, select
someone from your community. What can you say about someone's culture based on
what they eat and how they eat it? A lot. FOOD WAYS is one of those
taken-for-granted aspects of culture, something you learn as a child, something
totally constructed. Ask yourself
(alone) the following questions. Record them for comparison later. Then
as ask your informant the same questions.
a. What was your favorite food prepared for you as a child? How was it prepared and by whom?
b. What foods were grown in your garden or milpa?
c. What food or drink do you eat on a daily basis?
d. What foods do you eat when you are sad, lonely, stressed or depressed?
e. What foods do you celebrate with on special occasions?
f. What foods do you eat that are good for you and why are they good for you?
g. What foods do you avoid because they are bad for you?
h. What foods do you like to prepare; with whom?
i. What foods do you eat when you are sick? What foods do you avoid when you are sick?
Active listening means you
are hearing carefully to what they are saying and asking key questions to get
people to open up more about their personal perspectives. You should be
interested in what they are saying and follow carefully what they are talking
about and what it means to them and their lives. Make a connection with them as
fellow humans and friends, not just as informants or service providers. Try to develop a conversation about the
points they raise. Allow them to lead you in any direction that they want to go
in their talking with you.
Write: Write in your fieldnotes the data from your
interview and begin to write a data analysis note about what you have learned.
Be prepared to discuss your findings in class.
In a methods note, note the problems you might have had in communicating
with them and what you could have done to better do this assignment. In a journal note, write about the feelings
that arose in you as you listened to what they said.
Potential Research topic: Throughout
your homestay, you will notice the different foods and customs at mealtimes of
your family. This interview could
provide interesting background information for a research topic on varying food
customs throughout a community.
Assignment
No. 4, OBSERVING
This exercise requires that
you explore the residential sections of the town in which you are living. It
also asks that you carefully observe the settlement pattern and commercial and
housing aspects. Take notes while you are in the field. When you return to
home, write up your fieldnotes and address the following topics as well as you
can.
Appearance: What do they look like -- what are their dominant or
most outstanding features (think how a novelist might describe them)? What are
the dominant colors, sights, sounds, and smells of each?
Settlement pattern: How are the houses and other structures spaced on
the land? In Panajachel, for example, do the home sites have more space and
bigger yards, other amenities? How are the streets laid out? What is the street
order of the neighborhood? Are there sub-neighborhoods within these two? What
names do they have and how are they differentiated? Is there any special
identity given to these sub-neighborhoods by the locals? What do the locals
think of the community where you are living?
Housing: What types of housing are found in this
neighborhood? How are they different: size, colors, materials? Can you lump the
housing you observed into different types (you might ask local people how they
would classify different types of houses and what distinguishes one category
from another)? Are houses segregated or grouped according to size or wealth of
the owner? Can you detect social classes
or houses or neighborhoods where people of different social classes live?
Yards: How do the neighbors use the space around their
houses? Where is the entrance to the house? Does the spatial arrangement seem
to encourage or discourage drop-in visitors? How much is devoted to
landscaping, outdoor furniture, playthings, work space, crops? If crops are
grown, identify them. How large are yards? How much land do most home sites
appear to have? How many people seem to be around the house working, playing or
relaxing? How do they use that space for those activities?
Economic activity: What are the principal economic activities of
residential areas? What do the residents seem to rely on for their income? Do a
rough tally of the different types of businesses. What does this reveal about
the neighborhood's local economy? Obviously, you cannot observe and record all
of this in a single day. Do as much as you can in 4-5 single-spaced pages of
fieldnotes. See sample fieldnotes in the handbook if you are unclear about what
is expected.
Tourism: What kind of tourist activity is there in this town,
if any? What kinds of tourists are there? What do they do? Where do they go?
Where do they stay? How do local people seem to interact with tourists? What
type tourist infrastructure is there (hotels, restaurants, internet, roads,
tour guides, organized recreational activities, etc.?
Institutions: What kind of social institutions are there in this
town and how many of them are there of each type? (e.g., churches, helping agencies and
programs, health outposts, schools, etc.)
How prominent are they in the community?
Where are they located and in what spatial connections to they reside
with other institutions and with residential areas?
Other aspects of the
landscape: Are there other important
aspects of the landscape that are not covered by these more universal
categories? How are they important? Is there anything that makes this landscape especially
unique?
Potential for research: This exercise could lead to another interesting
research topic. For example, one could
do a study relating residential areas to social status and use of space.
Assignment
No. 5, TOURIST SURVEY
Questionnaires and survey
research are important fieldwork skills that you can learn during the field
school. An easy topic for survey
research is tourism. Since tourism is an
important aspect of either the past, present or future of all the towns around
Lake Atitlán, it is helpful to know something about the type of tourists coming
to this area: who the tourists themselves are, why they visit the area, and
what they do when they are there. Tourist surveys can also serve to develop
marketing strategies or to determine the feasibility of a particular attraction
in a tourist destination, and can be helpful to the local communities in
planning tourism development. Furthermore, tourist surveys can be helpful when
trying to improve the quality of service to the client or when trying to
enhance the value of the tourist destination itself. However, if you would like to adapt the
questionnaire to be more relevant to your research topic, you are encouraged to
do so and discuss this option with the directors of the field school.
Protocol:
Using the following
questionnaire (or an approved adapted version which pertains more particularly
to your project) interview a variety of tourists (10-30 depending on the town)
in your town:
1. "Why did
you come to ______ (your town)?
2. "What do
you like most about the place and what do you like least?"
3. "What kind
of problems have you had during your visit?"
4. "What
suggestions would you make to improve the quality of tourism here?"
5. "About how
much did (do) you spend per day?"
6. "Did you
travel alone, in a group, with guides, etc. to the various sites?"
7. “Did you feel safe while you were here?” Had
you been warned before coming that Guatemala was dangerous?” (If they say yes,
probe for what specifically were they warned about.)
8. "What is
the impression that the town has left you with?" or "How will you
describe this town to your friends/family back home?"
9. "How do
you think tourism affects the local population?"
10. “How helpful or friendly were the local
residents to you and your friends?”
11. “Will you
recommend to your friends and relatives back home that they visit Guatemala?”
12. "How
easy or difficult was it for you to get to this town, and on which form of
transportation did you arrive?"
13. Ask at the end:
profession, education, nationality and note age and sex of the respondent.
Analysis and Write-up:
Write up the results of the
surveys in your fieldnotes. Analyze the results and write it up as an analysis
fieldnote. You could start your analysis by making simple tables comparing
responses. Make note of any limitations there were in the methodology you
used. Also turn in a written summary of
your data and analysis. Use tables as
appropriate.
Assignment
No. 6, INDIGENOUS MARKET STUDY
Purpose:
1. To explore investigation/ethnographic
techniques (interviews, open conversations, participant observation, etc.)
2. To get
acquainted with the local market and its social, economic, and geographic
traits.
3. To understand
the relation between local rural production and the exchange, consumption, and
connection with other urban centers and the global economy.
4. To explore the
ecological impact of market activity as observed and/or deduced, i.e. the
different forms of organization of material life.
5. To analyze the
local, national, and touristic value of the market, i.e. attractiveness,
accessibility, variety, sanitation, friendliness, etc.
Protocol:
1. Visit a local market on its specified day (for
example: San Lucas on Tues, Fri, or Sunday; San Pedro on Friday; Sololá on
Tuesday or Friday, Panajachel on Sunday, Chichi on Sunday, Santiago on its main
market day, etc.) If there is not a market of considerable size in the town
where you live, choose a larger one that is nearby.
2. Walk through the market and observe what is being
sold, how it is presented, interactions between consumers and vendors, etc.
3. Find/learn the prices of the following items:
1lb.
tomatoes,
½ doz
tortillas,
un ramo basil
(albahaca in Spanish)
doz. eggs,
1 whole
chicken,
1 avocado,
doz. bananas,
1 cantelope (“melón”),
1 lb. of
hamburger meat,
bundle of
incense,
cloth for a
corte
1 huipil
blouse,
1 head of
broccoli,
½ dz. onions,
a mug (like a
coffee mug),
½ lb. of
dried fish,
1 lb. of
sugar, a dozen limes,
1 pr. of
jeans (men),
1 pr. of
jeans (child).
4. Talk with a variety of people at the market
(consumers, vendors, tourists). As a partial guide, include at least half of
the following questions in your interviews, conversations, and to think about
while you are actively observing the activities of the market:
a.
Who are the
vendors of local products and of those products from outside the area (the
producers themselves, intermediaries)?
b.
Where else do
they sell their products and how often?
Do they sell their products to anyone who then resells them elsewhere?
c.
What do these
individuals do when they are not selling products at the market (farmers, land
owners, etc.)?
d.
What type of
relation exists between consumers and vendors?
e.
What kinds of specializations
from certain areas are presented? Why are they found at this market?
f.
Are there
specialists who travel from one market to the next offering their services?
g.
What kind of
relationship do they have with the locals?
h.
What types of
weights and measurements are used? Why?
i.
Who establishes
these regulations and what does it say about the product/vendor/market?
j.
How often do
consumers visit the market and why?
k.
What languages
are used in the market? Does it vary between consumers and other vendors?
l.
What approaches
do vendors take (aggressive, persuasive, etc.)? How is it relative to the
product? What seems to be most effective?
m.
What other events
take place in town the same day as the market (religious, social, political,
etc.)? At these times, do people of different backgrounds/interests mix?
Explain.
n.
What effect has
the market of "artesanías" directed at tourists had on the market of
"necessities" of the local indigenous peoples? Characterize these two
markets.
Analysis and Write-up:
Include all observations, interviews, and subsequent
analysis, addressing the objectives mentioned above, and placed in your
fieldnotes.
Assignment No. 7: COGNITIVE MAPPING
Cognitive Maps are relational data
people store in their heads about the location and spatial relationships
between and among important events and localities in their lives. As you become familiar with the community in
which you live, you start to map out important places (whether buildings,
natural areas, or other physical spaces of significance) in your head. This
exercise will allow you to draw out these images on paper, and require that
other members of the community do the same. The maps that we hold in our heads
of any particular area are called cognitive maps, and they go beyond a simple
sketch of paths and landmarks. Cognitive Maps are relational data people store
in their heads about the location and spatial relationships between and among
important events and localities in their lives. However, they also extend
beyond the physical environment to include not only “physical attributes of a
place, [but also] stories about it, and information about how to behave in it.”
Cognitive maps can serve to understand “emotional responses to environmental
features and to the individual’s interactions with those features” (Austin
1998:21). Cognitive maps give you insight into what is important in a person’s
everyday tasks, routine and in the special places they visit (churches,
recreational centers, etc.). Cognitive maps also have much practical use in
applied anthropology. For example, cognitive maps have been used in cultural
preservation by combining oral history with interaction between individuals and
their environment, and in turn aided in protecting places of cultural
significance. See Austin, Diane E.
1998.“Cultural Knowledge and the Cognitive Map.” Practicing Anthropology.
20:3(21-24).
Protocol: Draw
a map/sketch of the community you live in, as best you can from memory. Ask
someone from your host family to draw a map of the community to the best of
her/his ability. Ask the informant to explain the contents of the map. If
possible, accompany her/him on a walk through the community while they explain
the map.
(1)
Ask
two other members of the community, at least one from the opposite sex from the
previous, to do the same.
(2)
You
should have at least 4 maps in total, including yours, but we encourage you to do more,
especially if you think this method will benefit your research.
Analysis and Write-up:
1.
Write
a brief description and analysis of each informant’s map (including yours) and
informant. State who each informant is, why they were chosen and what social
characteristics they have that you were able to find out (e.g., male/female,
Indígena/Ladino/tourist, nationality, occupation, age, etc.)Analyze and
interpret each map with respect to what you find to be important to the
informant in each example.
2.
What
assumptions and/or conclusions can/cannot be made from each map?
3.
How
are the maps similar and/or different in relation to the informant?
4.
Briefly
reflect on the significance of this assignment in your understanding and
orientation of the community in which you live. How can this method benefit
your research topic? For example, cognitive mapping may provide you with a
visual image of not only where women go in the community, but also who they
interact with, how they behave in particular physical environments, and the
role they play within the community.
5.
Include
the maps with your analysis and write-up in up in your fieldnotes when you hand
in the assignment.
Assignment
No. 8, EVENT ANALYSIS
The
history of people’s lives are often defined by the events they observe or
participated in over their lifetime.
Events also mark the passage of time, indicate changes in status, and
reaffirm or challenge the status quo.
Thus, the fieldwork and analysis on events is a key technique by which
the ethnographer can understand underlying elements of social structure, social
belief, and social values. All events
consist of at least three major features: space, actor, and activities. In addition to these three features, there
are six more: object, act, event, time, goal, and feeling.
Space: the physical place or places
Actor: the people involved
Activity: a set of related acts people do
Object: the physical things that are present
Act: single actions that people do
Event: a set of related activities that people carry out
Time: the sequencing that takes place over time
Goal: the things people are trying to accomplish
Feeling: the emotions felt and expressed
Protocol:
1. Attend a major
event in your town or you may choose to go to the patron saint festival of
another town around the lake.
2. Describe the
event in detail. In the most general
sense, the nine features listed above serve as guidelines for the ethnographer
so your description should cover each feature.
Discuss how they are connected to each other. List or diagram the different stages of the
event, sequentially if possible. For space, you can draw a map of the
event.
3. Interview
community members before, during, and after the event.
Analysis and Write-up
Write up your observations
and interviews in your fieldnotes. Identify
cultural themes or patterns in the event you have observed that help define the
underlying social structures, beliefs, and values.
Assignment
No. 9, TIME ALLOCATION
It is often important to
spend time just watching what specific people do over a period of time. That
way, the ethnographer can determine what it is people really do. Sometimes
people say they cook dinner every day, but do they really? Sometimes, a man
might say he does 50% of the household chores. But does he really? A time
allocation study can compare what people say they do versus what they really
do. This method asks the ethnographer to observe someone closely over an
extended period of time, often for a week or more. (Usually only one or two
people.) They are followed in their everyday activities by the ethnographer. It
also allows the ethnographer to really get to know the person being studied in
depth.
Protocol:
You are asked in this
assignment to ask someone you have met or know to follow them around for at
least a half a day, at least for 5 hours. You are to shadow them, but only
loosely interact with them, so their focus is on their activities rather than
on you. Keep a record of what they do at least every 5 to 10 minutes. Write up
your notes in your fieldnotes. Include an analysis of what you learned about
this person's behavior from observing them and describe how the method could be
used more extensively in your project (assuming you had the time to do it).
Indicate that this is the time allocation study in your fieldnotes.
Summary:
Write up your fieldnotes,
indicating that this is your time allocation study. Then write a interpretative
analytic note summarizing:
1. What you found
out;
2. What you think
of the value of the information you acquired;
3. An analysis of
what you learned about this person's life and activities based upon your
observations; and,
4. How you could
use this technique more extensively in your own research project, if you had
time.
Assignment
No. 10, FREE-LISTING/PILE SORTS
Definition: Pile sorts elicit judgments of similarity among items
in a cultural domain. (Schensul, et. al 1999: 131)
In Research Methods in
Anthropology , 1994, Russell Bernard says . . .
"I've used pile sorts to study the social structure of
institutions such as prisons, ships at sea, and bureaucracies, and also to map
the cognitively defined social organization of small communities. I simply hand
people a deck of cards, each of which contains the name of one of the people in
the institution, and ask informants to sort the cards into piles, according to
their own criteria. The results tell me how various components of an
organization (managers, production workers, advertising people; or guards,
counselors, prisoners; or seamen, deck officers, engine room personnel; or men
and women in a small Greek village) think about the social structure of the
group. Instead of "what goes with what," I learn " who goes with
who."
Informants usually find
pile sorting fun to do. Asking informants to explain why people appear in the
same pile produces a wealth of information about the cognitively defined social
structure of a group. (p. 252)
Typically, pile sorts are
done with cards or slips of paper. Each card has the name of a thing or a
concept written on it. Once again, the items are gleaned from a free list that
defines a cultural domain. Informants are asked to "sort these cards into
piles, putting things that are similar together in a pile." (p. 249)
Protocol:
1. Choose a
cultural domain for which to conduct a pile sort with informants based on your
individual project interests. For example, you could choose a medical domain
such as illnesses, or an environmental domain such as natural resources, etc.
2. Develop a list
of terms by using a "free-listing" technique. This is very simple.
Just ask a selection of people (number of people varies according to your
needs, time, ends, etc.). When you free-list, just ask the informant to
"tell you all the X he or she knows about", or "What kind of X
are there?" So, for example, you could ask someone about soft drinks and
ask them, "Please tell me all the soft drinks you can think of."
After you have done this with a few people, you will have a basic list of
domain names that can be used in pile sorting. Both free-listing and pile
sorting give you extensive insight into the cognitive perspectives of people's
world view.
3. Write or draw
the name or short description of the domain items on individual index cards.
("Showing pictures or using the items themselves tends to bias the
respondents toward sorting according to physical attributes such as size,
color, and shape" Schensul, et. al, p132)
4. Present the
cards to informants and ask them to sort them based on their own criteria. Set
aside any cards they may be unfamiliar with. Sometimes informants will want to
put a card in more than one pile. Although Bernard says this cannot be done for
technical sorting purposes, Schensul suggests re-writing the name on a blank
card to be placed in the second pile because . . . "putting
items into more than one pile causes no problems for analyzing the data and may
correspond better to the respondents' views." (Schensul, et. al,
p132)"
5. Normally, the
pile sort exercise is repeated with at least 30 respondents, although the
number depends on the amount of variability in responses." p133, but for
the sake of this exercise, please do a minimum of 10. For the free-listing part
of the exercise, do a minimum of three, but if you find that this technique is
really helping you with your data collection, do more.
Analysis and Write-up
Write up the data from the
pile sort exercise and put it in your fieldnotes. Make tables of results and
analyze the data in your fieldnotes.