Ethnographic Fieldwork Assignment

Goal:  To collect two (2) forms of ethnographic data for your final project.

For your final project, collect a minimum of two different types of data. You are welcome to collect more, if you have time and if you think it will be helpful to your project.

In this class and in the Anthropology program, we have discussed the various research methods listed below (some to greater degrees than others).

Discuss 2 that you plan to implement on the “Research Plan” grid.  And, discuss the outcomes of your data collection on the “Data Collected” grid featured below.

Ethnographic Research Methods

Observational Methods

Participant observation

Behavioral Mapping (see Setha Low)

Movement Mapping (see Setha Low)

Cultural resource mapping (when you map resources that are culturally significant to a community)

Time motion studies (see William Whyte’s film)

 

Interview approaches

Key informant interviews (when you interview a person with a special perspective in the community

Semi structured interviews

Transect walks (when you interview someone while they walk and point out culturally and socially significant spaces and views in a landscape)

Transect drives (same as above only while driving or taking a bus or train)

Mapping social networks (when you map out individuals’ relationships based on information you gather when surveying or interviewing someone)

 

Archival research

Gathering any of the following:

Grey literature, maps, brochures, menus, photos, tweets, documentation of signage, videos, musical recordings, newspaper stories, letters, official documents

 

Others??