Jolanda vanArnhem and I wish you a healthy and happy experience learning how to become anthropologists!
We are looking forward to your postings here and in googledocs.
Dr. Quinn

Hello everyone:

I hope all is going smoothly during the final week of school.
Please turn in your final papers/portfolios on Tuesday, May 5, in Room 207 (Center for Expressive Culture) at 5PM SHARP.  You may also turn in your work early by putting it in Dr. Quinn’s mailbox at 19 St. Philip Street, second floor. DO NOT slip your final papers/portfolios under  my office door or leave them outside the office door, as they may get lost.
Be sure to include your IRB gradesheets in your portfolios so that they may be properly recorded.
Those who have not turned in equipment will have their grades withheld.
Those who still need to remove materials from computers should make an appointment with Joey or see her on May 5th at 5PM.
All other queries, please e-mail Dr. Quinn at quinne@cofc.edu, and/or Jolanda vanArnhem at vanarnhemj@cofc.edu.
Good luck and see you Tuesday,
Dr. Quinn and Joey

“A map of the world covered of one wall of the cafe, and as I huddled over a cup of coffee I noticed David staring at it intently.  He glanced at me, then back at the map, then again at me, only this time with a grin that splayed his beard from ear to ear.  Lifting his arm toward the map, he dropped his finger on a piece of land that cut into Hudson’s Bay well beyond the Arctic Circle.  I looked over at him and felt my own arm rise until it landed me in the middle of the upper Amazon.”

I really enjoyed reading the work of Wade Davis.  At times I would forget that I was reading an ethnography and instead, feel like I was reading a fiction novel.  His book has even been made into a movie by Wes Craven.  I admire the way he draws his audience in using thick description.  His experiences and not anthropological jargon are the central theme of his writing, which I think allows him draw in a larger audience than just fellow anthropologists.

-Robyn

After much thought I decided to choose Jean Briggs as an ethnographer I would like to imitate.  I re-read the Kapluna Daughter and went over the material I highlighted and realized that Briggs, like Geertz was descriptive and attempted to place the reader in the society of the Utkuhiksalingmuit where Briggs was going to spend a year and a half.  Briggs explained in depth her day-to-day life as well as the obstacles and/or conflicts she faced while interacting with the Eskimos.  My favorite part of her work is when she explains why she wished to get adopted and her conflicts she encountered going through the process of getting adopted and the events thereafter.

I enjoyed Briggs writing when we were assigned to read the piece earlier in the semester. When I went over the work again I was reminded of Geertz’s work and his use of thick description.  I believe that Briggs has similar qualities and her writing style keeps me interested while educating me in the process.  Even though her writing stlye is descriptive, it is very long and a times her ethnography is repeated and that makes it boring.  Despite that I would like to imitate Briggs writing style so I could inform and educate people about my research.  I like the ability of putting the audience/reader in my point of view and also trying to give the reader ant emic point of view, similar to what Geertz and Boas strives for.

Christina

Caitlin

One of my favorite ethnographic accounts is a book called “The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down: A Hmong Daughter, Her American Doctors, and the Collision of Two Cultures” by Ann Fadiman.  Lea, a Hmong immigrant toddler has severe epilepsy, which her family diagnoses as a flight of her soul from her body. Fadiman’s half-narrative, half-analysis of immigrant culture clash in California illustrates some of the big issues faced by medical anthropologists in terms of biomedicine and traditional or spiritual ethnomedicine. Fadiman’s writing is intimate and moving yet informative and self-consciously unbiased.

Excerpt from The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down

On the established anthropological principle,When in Rome, my wife and I decided, only slightly less instantaneously than everyone else,that the thing to do was run too. We ran down the main village street, northward, away from where we were living, for we were on that side of the ring. About half-way down another fugitive ducked suddenly into a compound-his own, it turned out-and we, seeing nothing ahead of us but rice fields, open country, and a very high volcano, followed him. As the three of us came tumbling into the courtyard, his wife, who had apparently been through this sort of thing before, whipped out a table, a tablecloth, three chairs, and three cups of tea, and we all, without any explicit communication whatsoever, sat down, commenced to sip tea, and sought to compose ourselves

“Deep Play: Notes on the Balinese Cockfight”

This is probably my favorite section in Geertz’s ethnography because it is unlike an other ethnography that I’ve read in my classes. His use of thick description gives the reader a better perception of the surroundings. In this passage he is describing how he ran from the police with his wife just like the locals were doing. He could have easily just explained he was there doing research but I like that he took off like everyone else. I think i may use a similar writing style when composing my paper because I like the use of describing your surroundings and focusing on the established “friendships” with your informants. It is a good example to follow for someone who is writing an ethnography for the first time because its not ‘stiff’ or purely factual.

Jen

“Today, a few special occasions aside, the newer rectitude makes so open a statement of the connection between the excitements of collective life and those of blood sport impossible, but, less directly expressed, the connection itself remains intimate and intact. To expose it, however, it is necessary to turn to the aspect of cockfighting around which all the others pivot, and through which they exercise their force, an aspect I have thus far studiously ignored. I mean, of course, the gambling.” from “Deep Play: Notes on a Balinese Cockfight” by Clifford Geertz

I really admire Clifford Geertz’s style of writing ethnographies, mostly because of his thick description. He is well known for that type of writing, and I think it makes for a very interesting and easy to read ethnography. I can also picture exactly what he sees, everything from the participants, to the setting, to the activities and even the chickens. He wrote about a great experience for anyone, but especially for an anthropologist. His work, however, doesn’t seem like the work of a researcher, but more of a visitor and eventually an insider, which is also refreshing to read because it makes it easier to follow and enjoy.

Morgan

“As he gazed at the landscape he said to me, “Birbhum [the district Mangaldihi lies in] is the best place in the world. Everyone here knows each other and everyone loves each other.” His words made me feel exceedingly lucky to have happened on such a place: I looked around, with the winter sun warm on my face and arms, and admired the gentle hills undulating into the distance. Now his statement seems even more striking, because it was the only one of its kind that I heard.”

I really enjoy Sarah Lamb’s ethnographic writing style. She presents her data in a way that is very imaginable and easy to relate to without dehumanizing herself or the other characters. Rather than feeling like it is a jargon-filled report, it reads much more like a creative writing piece.

-Michael

The Owl Sources for Electronic Citing

In reading several of the ethnographies, I found that Oliver Sacks is by far my favorite in presenting people.  Although the book “the Man who mistook his wife for a hat” is not necessarily a traditional ethnography, it does in some sense produce and represent a culture from which I personally know very little about.  I would have to say that my personaly atraction to Oliver’s style of writing would be the depth and literary stimuli that exudes from this particular work.  I feel as though Oliver is presenting not patients, but rather people, as he is, who have peculiar conditions, but non the less, are real people with real wants, emotions, and needs.  This really hits home to me because I feel thats who we are as anthropologists.  However I do feel through ethnography can and is misused.  How can ethnography be both qualitative and quantitative if the reality being presented is not the true reality of the people, but rather the reality of the writer. Should Ethnographies be used and presented as knowledge and reality of a people? I do not know, for I am in the beginings of my anthropological view of life.  Sorry this post ended up being so long.

Byron