Intro Cultural Ethnographies?

[Leila Monaghan]

I will be teaching a summer 3 week intensive class that should have only  
about 20 people in it. I thought I would use them as the guinea pigs for  
this experiment, giving them the range of ethnographies that they can  
choose from and using their reactions to judge which ethnographies might  
work well as a large lecture class text here at the University of Wyoming.  
I currently have people do mini-papers on groups they (in groups  
themselves) choose from a list. While some while chose groups like the  
Austalian Aborigines or the Inuit, many chose groups like the Japanese or  
Irish that they are more familiar with. Will be interesting to see which  
ethnographies they gravitate towards.

Thanks so much for this discussion and the suggestions. Will try to put up  
a list of suggested ethnographies but it will take a while.

all best,

Leila



On Mar 9, 2011 9:08am, Bruce Mannheim <mannheim at umich.edu> wrote:
> 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



> > >