FieldWorking

 

Defining Culture: Fieldwork and Ethnography
Stepping In: Revealing Our Subcultures
     BOX 1: Looking at Subcultures
Investigating Perspectives: Insider and Outsider
Stepping Out: Making the Familiar Strange and the Strange Familiar
     Horace Miner, “Body Ritual of the Nacirema”
     BOX 2: Making the Ordinary Extraordinary
Posing Questions: Ethnographic vs Journalistic
     * Lorraine Ahearn, “Folk ‘Cure’ Sold Locally High on Lead”
     BOX 3: Engaging the Ethnographic Perspective
     * Julie O’Donoghue, “Fairfax Residents Become U.S. Citizens”
Fieldworking with This Book
An Ethnographic Study: “Friday Night at Iowa 80”
     Rick Zollo, “Friday Night at Iowa 80” (Student Project)
* Doing Research Online
FieldWriting: Establishing a Voice
A Community Action Study
     Ivana Nikolic, “House for the Homeless: A Place to Hang Your Hat” (Student Project)
Reflection as Critique
The Research Portfolio: Definitions and Purpose
* Do This: Select a Fieldsite

 

Exploratory Writing
     BOX 4: Freewriting
FieldWriting: Point of View and Rhetoric
Keeping a Notebook
     Joan Didion, “On Keeping a Notebook”
     BOX 5: Exploratory Notetaking with a Group
Getting at the Details
     Samuel H. Scudder, “Look at Your Fish”
     BOX 6: Double-Entry Notes
Fieldnotes: The Key to Your Project
     BOX 7: Sharing Your Initial Fieldnotes
Analyzing Your Fieldnotes 
     BOX 8: Questioning Your Fieldnotes
     Amy Lambert, “Feng-Shui: Reflections on a Sociology Class” (Student Project)
Double Voiced FieldNotes
     * H. L. “Bud” Goodall,  “Representing Ethnographic Experiences”
The Research Portfolio: Reflecting on Your Fieldnotes
* Do This: Question Your Notes

Reading Cultures as Text and Texts as Culture
     Gloria Naylor, “Mama Day”
     BOX 9: Responding to Text
Positioning: Reading and Writing About Yourself
     BOX 10: Positioning Yourself
Understanding Positioning: Checking in on Yourself
     BOX 11: Unlearning Our Privilege (Mimi Harvey)
Getting Permission
     BOX 12: From Ethos to Ethics (Julie Cheville)
Reading an Object: The Cultural Artifact
     * BOX 13: Reading an Artifact (Beth Campbell)
The Uses of Cultural Artifacts
     Alice Walker, “Everyday Use”
Responding to Reading
     BOX 14: FieldWorking Book Clubs (Kathleen Ryan)
FieldWriting: Published and Unpublished Written Sources 
Reading Electronic Communities
     * Fieldworking in a Changing Field
     * Elise Wu, “Out Patient”  (Student Project)
* Working with Online Communities
     * BOX 15: Locating Online Cultures
The Research Portfolio: An Option for Rereading
* Do This: Read Your Fieldsite

Personal Geography
     Jamaica Kincaid, “On Seeing Jamaica for the First Time”
     BOX 16: Recalling a Sense of Place
Selective Perception
FieldWriting: The Grammar of Observation
     BOX 17: Writing a Verbal Snapshot
Deepening Description Through Research
     * Jeannie B. Thomas, “The Cemetery as marketplace in Salem, Massachusetts”
Learning How to Look: Mapping Space
      BOX 18: Mapping Space
Learning How to Look: Finding a Focal Point
      BOX 19: Finding a Focal Point
Learning How to Look: Identifying Unity and Tension
      Karen Downing, “Strike a Pose” (Student Project)
Learning How to Look: Colonized Spaces
      Jennifer Hemmingsen, “The Happy Canyon” (Student Project)
The Research Portfolio: Learning from Your Data
      Karen Downing, “A Pose on ‘Strike a Pose’” (Portfolio Reflection)
* Do This: Map Your Space

The Interview: Learning How to Ask
     BOX 20: Using a Cultural Artifact: An Interview 
Learning How to Listen
     * Etiquette for Conducting an Interview
     BOX 21: Establishing Rapport
Recording and Transcribing
     Cindie Marshall, “Ralph’s Sports Bar” (Student Project)
     BOX 22: Analyzing Your Interviewing Skills
The Informant’s Perspective: An Anthropologist on Mars
     Oliver Sacks, “An Anthropologist on Mars”
Gathering Family Stories
     BOX 23: Writing a Family Story
One Family Story: The Core and its Variants
Gathering Oral Histories
     * Nancy Hauserman, “Taking Care”
     * Dave Isay, “Listening is an Act of Love”
     Jennette Edwards, “I Can Read and I Can Write” (online only)
     BOX 24: Starting an Oral History
FieldWriting: Using Character, Setting, and Theme to Create a Portrait
     BOX 25: Writing a Verbal Portrait
The Research Portfolio: Reflective Documentation
* Do This: Reflect on Researching People

Linking Body Language and Culture
     * BOX 26: Observing Body Language: (Amie Ohlmann)
Linking Words and Culture
     Lafcadio Hearn, “Cheek”
     BOX 27: Listening for Words: Creating a Glossary
Using Insider Language in Your Writing
Words as Cultural Artifacts
Researching Occupation: Recording Insider Language
     BOX 28: Describing Occupational Terms
Verbal Performance: Curses
     BOX 29: Gathering Verbal Performances: Proverbs, Jokes, and Saying
Researching Urban Legends
     * Ofelia Zapeda, “A Language Journey”
FieldWriting: Dialogue on the Page
The Research Portfolio: Synthesis
* Do This: Translate Your Work

     * A. Kendra Greene, “Everything Perfectly, Forever” (Student Project)
Family Archives
     Edward Ball, “Slaves in the Family”
     BOX 30: A Box about Boxes
Historical Archives
* University Archives
Museum Archives
     BOX 31: Sorting Through Public Archives 
     Naomi Shihab Nye, “The Attic and its Nails”
Organizing Archival Material
Alternative Archives
     Lars Eighner, “On Dumpster Diving”
     BOX 32: Alternative Archives
Electronic Archives: Using the Internet
FieldWriting: Annotated Bibliographies
The Research Portfolio: Representing the Unflat Stuff
* Do This: Search the Fieldworking Archives

Drafting Drafts
     Anne LaMott, “Shitty First Drafts”
Questioning Your Draft
Thickening Your Draft
     BOX 33: Listening to the Voices in Your Draft (David Seitz)
Representing Culture in Your FieldWriting
Crafting a Text
     * William Harvey Purcell, “Disability is Beautiful”
FieldWriting: Analytic Section Headings
Revising for a Reader
     Donald M. Murray, “Some Notes on Revision”
     BOX 34: Sharing Data: Partners in Revision
The Research Portfolio: One-Page Analysis and Annotated Table of Contents
A Final Comment: Paying Attention to Writing
* Do This: Smooth Your Final Draft

Appendix A: MLA Documentation Guidelines
Appendix B: APA Documentation Guidelines
Appendix C: Works Cited and Recommended Readings