Intro Cultural Ethnographies?

[Bruce Mannheim]

Leila,
That's something that I would only do in an upper-division class (if then).
In the class you are describing, you'll need to talk about how the
ethnographer uses ethnographic particulars to weave a larger analytic whole,
so you'll end up choosing one or another of the books to discuss in
class--may as well be upfront about it.  (Also when there's a choice that
isn't motivated by the goals of the course you run the risk that people
who--like me--find it hard to choose will wind up not choosing.)

But yes, some great suggestions--time for me to go to the library.....
Bruce

-----Original Message-----
From: Linguistic Anthropology Discussion Group
[mailto:LINGANTH at LISTSERV.LINGUISTLIST.ORG] On Behalf Of Leila Monaghan
Sent: Tuesday, March 08, 2011 11:48 PM
To: LINGANTH at LISTSERV.LINGUISTLIST.ORG
Subject: Re: [LINGANTH] Intro Cultural Ethnographies?

Wow! Amazed to see so many answers so fast.

Incredible and very useful list. I think what I might do is offer students  
a chance to pick from a list of books.

Many thanks!

Leila

On Mar 8, 2011 8:21pm, Liz Coville <ecoville at gmail.com> wrote:
> Hi, everyone,



> I've used Julie Cruikshank's _Do Glaciers Listen?_ I picked it because it

> won the Victor Turner award, so it's well-written, and because it relates

> somewhat to climate change, so it's got a bit of a contemporary angle. It

> divides into three sections: ethnographic, via stories told by elderly  
> Yukon

> residents; historica, via explorer accounts: and contemporary, via the

> discourse of "preserving the wilderness" and making the area into a UNESCO

> World Heritage site.



> Also try to give students a sense of re-studies of the same place over  
> time,

> so students see how anthropology itself has changed. Lee's _The Ju/hoansi_

> and Lansing's _The Balinese_ work from this perspective, although  
> mentioning

> them in this thread makes me feel like I need to get up to date on recent

> ethnographies!



> Liz Coville

> Dept Sociology & Anthropology

> Carleton College



> On Tue, Mar 8, 2011 at 9:00 PM, Matthew Bernius mbernius at gmail.com> wrote:



> > On Tue, Mar 8, 2011 at 9:40 PM, Bruce Mannheim mannheim at umich.edu>  
> wrote:

> >

> > > The problem I ran into (and one

> > > I'll be better prepared for in the future) is that some (?)/many (?)  
> of

> > the

> > > students were reading their first sustained non-fiction work. (They've

> > all

> > > read novels and they've all read textbooks, which break the world into

> > > bite-sized chunks.) So your students might need to be prepared for the

> > > reading they do before they actually delve into the first book.

> > >

> >

> > This has been my experience too. The first couple sections/classes often

> > end

> > up dedicated to teaching them "how to read" and "extract."

> >

> > Also, their exposure (or lack there of) to texts that take critical

> > positions on western stances should be taken into consideration as well.

> > During the first few weeks, especially if a student has never  
> encountered a

> > critical social science/humanities course, the seemingly tamest of

> > statements can lead to the majority of the class shutting down  
> (especially

> > Freshmen).

> >

> > -----------------------------

> > Matthew Bernius

> > PhD Student | Cultural Anthropology | Cornell University |

> > http://anthropology.cornell.edu

> > Researcher At Large | Open Publishing Lab @ the Rochester Institute of

> > Technology | http://opl.cias.rit.edu

> > mBernius at gMail.com | http://www.mattbernius.com | @mattBernius

> > My calendar: http://bit.ly/hNWEII

> >