” I came across a white clothed widow in her seventies called Mejo Ma (middle mother), sitting in the dusty lane in front of her home. She could not stop complaining about clinging. her attatchments to her family, to thigs, to good food, and to her own body were so tight, she said, that she was afraid of lingering for years in a decrepit state, unable to die. ‘how will I leave all these kids and things and go?’ She lamented. She feared that after her body died she would remain emotionally shackled nearby as a ghost.”

                                            White Saris and Sweet Mangoes, Sarah Lamb

I like Sarah Lambs writting because it’s not too technical and not to literary. Its enjoyable to read and teaches you alot in a very few sentances.

S.Catoe

“…narratives that have been passed on orally for generations continue to provide a foundation for evaluating contemporary choices and for clarifying decisions made as young women, as mature adults and during later life. Such narratives depict humans, animals and other nonhuman being engaged in an astonishing variety of activities and committed to mutually sustaining relationships that ensure the continuing well being of the world.”

From The Social Life of Stories by Julie Cruikshank

Posted by Paul

Working Images in Ethnographic Research

from jen

this book was about the illegal drug culture in Harlem, NYC. the author began with a history of drug use in the Harlem area. i liked the way he included the interviews within his ethnography and made it part of the writing and used it as a reference. he also gave alot of facts and city wide census to explain why things in the area are which helps the reader have a better understanding of the drug culture as a whole.

Social Life of Stories

by Julie Cruikshank

Personally I found her style very dry.  I’m not sure if it was just the part of the book that I read but I thought it was kinda boring and not very narrative.  I felt that I got a lot of the background to the story but never heard the actual story itself.  My favorite passage was one that I felt emcompassed all that the pointers provided in class.

“Older people still talk about the social contacts such trade provided– partnerships established and marriages cemeting them.  There are stories about how interior peoples initially met coastal traders, about trade routes they followed and about dangers Tlingit traders faced crossing glaciers.  Clan traditions tell of the arrival of four Tlingit sisters who married into interior communities to formalize trading partnerships, and of the relaxation of ethnic boundaries between coastal and interior peoples over the years.”

~ Gillian

Qualitative Methods Ch7

The Interview as Social Interaction and Speech Event

            –  The Interview as Social Interaction

                        1.  “Any Interview constitutes a social situation between two individuals; it is a process of continuous, spiral interaction in which one person’s response to the stimulation of another in turn becomes the stimulation for another response(Palmer 1928)”

                        2.  The interview process has been studied as a social situation with a beginning, an unfolding or natural history, and an ending.

–         Rapport, Truths, and Telling Accounts

1.      Rapport btw interviewer and respondent is very important. Through Rapport truth could be found; without, problems of untruthfulness and evasion may and will occur.

2.      Palmer suggests that to much talking from the interviewer may interfere with rapport and instead suggested body language.  “ Gestures, the nod of the head, smiles, facial expressions which reflect the emotions narrated are…very important.  They also aid the interviewer in escaping pitfalls; if the response is put into language it can more often lead to disagreement and misunderstanding which break the rapport btw the interviewer and his subject. 

3.      First Impressions are Key… “If the wrong foot is put in the door first, then every step afterward may not follow at all”

4.      In using rapport do not “underrapport” for data may be few and lead to untruths, while “overrapport” may be the respondent wanting to fill in data for the interviewer.  So try to find a happy medium. 

5.      “Read… Box 7.1/ 7/2

–         Impromptu Prompt-

–         Respondent Resistance

–         Emotional Content

-The Interview Topic and Participants

             The interview, like field research, involves an embodied researcher of a particular appearance, gender, race, and age; one or more respondents with their own social characteristics and a topic that may be of interest to bother participants but a threat to one.  No matter what the previous understandings or initial rapport, and no matter who is doing the interviewing, certain topics, or even certain questions or subtopics within a general topic, may stymie the interview process. 

            Social class, as well as gender, may affect the social situation of the interview as it is read through the bodies of the participants.  The social class of the interviewer as well as the respondent has been at issue before…(Kinsey)

-After the Interview

            From the interviewer’s point of view, once all questions are asked and the audiotape is turned off, the event is complete and it is time for leave-taking rituals.  Some interviewers, however, do recommend a period of what Kvale calls “debriefing” after the interview.

            “At the end of the interview there may be some tension or anxiety, because the subject has been open about often personal and emotional experiences and may be wondering about the interview’s purpose and how it will be used.  There may perhaps also be feelings of emptiness; the subject has given much information about his or her life and may not have received anything in return.”

            From the point of view of the respondents, the end of the interview may be a welcome relief, or something to prolong if possible, and anything in between.  Respondents vary from extremely busy people who have squeezed in a half hour to respond hurriedly to questions to elderly or isolated people who are lonely, desire company, and do not want the interviewer to leave.  Other respondents sought to continue the conversation with the interviewer once the recorder was turned off rather than proceeding to leave taking rituals.  Eventually, however, the interview does have to come to an end.

            After the respondent has gone, take notes of your physical environment, body language and context of the interview.  This will help spark memory of what was said in the interview.  Also information to include is how the respondent was dressed, looked , and behaved before, during, and after the interview, any body language that would not be captured on tape, and your interpretation of the respondent’s appearance, demeanor, and body language.

I appreciate the format of the book.  I love the quotations that precede each chapter.  I think incorporating other voices in the chapter lends to the authority of the information, and sets a clear theme for the reader.

-Caitlin