BYU-Hawai'i

Ethnographic Skills

Anthropology 322

Mon/Wed/Fri 2:00-2:50 p.m., Gym 144

3 Credits

 

Instructor: Tevita O. Ka'ili       

Phone: 293-3692       

Office: MFB 214

E-mail:  kailit@byuh.edu

 

Office Hours:    Tuesday & Thursday: 9:00am – 11:00am & 2:00pm – 4:00pm

Monday, Wednesday, Friday: By appointment Only

 

Required Text: 

  • Ethnography: Principles & Practice 2nd Edition By Martyn Hammersley & Paul Atkinson
  • Voyages: From Tongan Villages to American Suburbs By Cathy A. Small
  • Some additional required readings are posted for downloading on the Blackboard (https://blackboard.byu.edu). Click on Course Materials. To log in, use your NET ID and your password.

 

SCOPE OF COURSE: 

This course will critically examine ethnography from the perspectives of textuality and locality. Students will learn to apply ethnographic methods such as participant-observations, field relations, interviewing, note taking, organization of fieldnotes, analysis, critical reflexivity, and writing ethnography.

 

CLASS FORMAT: Kāinga Dialogue

In this class, we will use a Moana (Oceanic) learning format known as "Fofola e Fala Kae Alea e Kāinga" (Roll out the Mats and Let Kin Members Dialogue). This format is based on the cultural practice of kāinga (kin members) sitting together on a mat to engage one another in a respectful and critical dialogue. All students are considered a member of a classroom kāinga (classroom kin). Students are expected to participate in communal learning and to engage one another in critical dialogues. Students will be graded on their ability to participate in the kāinga dialogues (5 points for each kāinga dialogue). As members of the classroom kāinga, all students are required to come to each class fully prepared to discuss the readings and take an active role in class activities.

Class members are encouraged to draw from their "local and situated knowledge" (knowledge derived from their lived experiences) to enrich class dialogues. Remember that valuable knowledge is also found outside of written texts.

 

 

 

 

LEARNING OUTCOMES:

Upon completion of this course, you should be able to:

·        Design and implement ethnographic research

·        Critically evaluate ethnographic research

·        Know the ethics of ethnographic research

·        Understand the role of the ethnographer as a "positioned subject" in terms of gender, race, class, religious background, etc.

·        Write ethnographic fieldnotes

·        Write an ethnography

·        Use critical ethnography

 

WHAT COUNTS:

EVERYTHING!  Texts, lectures, mini ethnography assignments, kāinga dialogues, videos shown in class will be the primary source of data for the course.  This means class attendance is very important.  Come talk to me or call me if you have a problem with attendance—we’ll work on it together.

 

MINI ETHNOGRAPHY: "Deep Hanging Out"

Class members will be divided into groups to participate in a mini ethnographic assignment. This assignment is designed to provide students with an opportunity to practice their ethnographic skills. Group members must collaborate to workout the details for this group assignment. Each group must choose a cultural community and spend a total of 15 hours during the semester hanging-out (as a group) in that particular cultural community (e.g., religious community, kinship community, online community, social services community, school community, etc). In the last week of class, each group will give an oral presentation of their mini ethnography to the class. Here are few possible Group Intensive Hanging-out activities:

  • Religious Community: Attend and hangout at church meetings. Church meetings may include the following: church sermons, church prayer services, church feasts, Sunday schools, after church activities, church choir practices, before/after church gatherings, church annual donation meetings (misinale), church youth meetings, etc. 
  • Kinship Community: Hangout with a family. This may include the following: talking with families, attending a community event with a family, attending a family event (such as reunions), talk to family elders, etc. 
  • Online Community: Post writings in an online forum and hangout online (in chatrooms, instant messenger, email groups, etc.)
  • Community Events: Participate and hangout at a community events—e.g., public weddings, birthday celebrations, fundraisers, community meetings, etc.
  • Same-gender Community: Attend and participate in same-gender activities—such as all-male kava parties, quilt-making gatherings, etc.
  • Social Services Community: Participate in community social services activities—such as food bank drives, tutoring sessions, etc.    
  • Imagined Community: Listen to radio programs (on the airwaves and online). Read newspapers and magazines. Hangout and talk with people who runs radio programs, newspapers, and magazines.
  • Cultural Expression Community: Visit and hangout at dance schools (i.e.Hula Halau), language schools (Pūnana Leo), concerts, dance and music festivals, dance practices, listen to musical compositions (reggae, rap), etc.
  • School Community: Visit and hangout at schools—i.e., talk to students and parents, talk to teachers and principals, visit classrooms, visit school club meetings, etc.
  • BYUH Community: Participate in school clubs' meetings and activities.
  • Business Community: Hangout at a local business (shops, restaurants, etc.).

 

ETHNOGRAPHIC NARRATIVE:

You have the option of writing your ethnographic narrative as a group or as an individual. Your narrative is a written ethnographic account of your mini ethnography. Guidelines for your paper:

Ø      10 – 15 pages

Ø      Double-Space

Ø      APA format

 

GRADES: 

Kāinga Dialogues                                             75 points

Mini Ethnography: Deep Hanging Out   100 points

Group Oral Presentation                                   200 points

Ethnographic Narrative                         200 points

Total                                                               575 points

 

 

SCHEDULE

 

W 8/31                                    Introduction to Course. Discussion of syllabus, overview of                                           requirements.

                                   

F 9/2                            Topic: What is Ethnography?

Reading: Chapter 1

Introduce yourself by reciting your genealogy (3 generations)

                                   

M 9/5                           No School – Labor Day Holiday                                 

 

W 9/7                          Topic: Fieldnotes in Ethnographic Research

Reading: Emerson, R. M., Fretz, R.I., & Shaw, L.L. (1995). Writing Ethnographic Fieldnotes. Chicago, University of Chicago Press (pp.1 - 16).        

Video: Anthropology on Trial

 

F 9/9                            Topic: Research Design: Problems, Cases, and Samples (cont)

Reading: Chapter 2

Kāinga Dialogue #1

                                                                                                           

M 9/19                         Topic: Access

                                    Reading:  Chapter 3

 

W 9/21                                   Topic: Beyond "Culture"

Reading:  Gupta, A. F., J. (1997). Beyond "Culture": Space, Identity, and the Politics of Difference. Culture, Power, Place: Exploration in Critical Anthropology. A. G. J. Ferguson. Londo, Duke University Press: 33-51.

 

F 9/23                          Topic: Field Relations

                                    Reading: Chapter 4

 

M 9/26                         Topic: Sociospatial Relations

Reading: Ka'ili, T. O. (2005). "Tauhi vā: Nurturing Tongan Sociospatial Ties in Maui and Beyond." The Contemporary Pacific 17(1): 83-114.

Kāinga Dialogue #2

                                   

W 9/28                                    Topic: Insider Accounts: Listening and Asking Questions

                                    Reading: Chapter 5

                                   

F 9/30                          Topic: The Ethnographer as a "Positioned Subject"

Reading: Rosaldo, R. (1993). Culture & Truth: The Remaking of Social Analysis. Boston, Beacon Press (pp. 1-21)

Kāinga Dialogue #3

 

M 10/3                         Topic: Documents

                                    Reading: Chapter 6                

                                                                       

W 10/5                                    Topic: Writing Ethnographic Fieldnotes

Reading: Emerson, R. M., Fretz, R.I., & Shaw, L.L. (1995). Writing Ethnographic Fieldnotes. Chicago, University of Chicago Press (pp.17-38).

 

F 10/7                          Topic: Recording and Organizing Data

                                    Reading: Chapter 7

                                                                       

M 10/10                       Topic: Recording and Organizing Data (cont.)

Reading: Jackson, J. E. (1990). "I Am a Fieldnote": Fieldnotes as a Symbol of Professional Identity. Fieldnotes: The Making of Anthropology. R. Sanjek. Ithaca, New York, Cornell University Press.

Kāinga Dialogue #4

 

W 10/12                      Topic: The Process of Analysis

                                    Reading: Chapter 8

 

F 10/14                        Topic: The Process of Analysis (cont)

Reading: Bonus, R. (2000). Locating Filipino Americans: Ethnicity and the Cultural Politics of Space. Philadelphia, Temple University Press (pp. 57-91).

Reading: Rosaldo, R. (1993). Culture & Truth: The Remaking of Social Analysis. Boston, Beacon Press (pp. 91-108)

                                    Kāinga Dialogue #5

 

M 10/17                       Topic:  Writing Ethnography                

Reading: Chapter 9

                                                                       

W 10/19                      Topic: Writing Ethnography                 

Reading: Hereniko, V. (2000). Indigenous Knowledge and Academic Imperialism. Remembrance of Pacific Pasts: An Invitation to Remake History. R. Borofsky. Honolulu, HI, University of Hawai'i Press.: 78-91.

Kāinga Dialogue #6

                                   

F 10/21                        Topic: Ethics

                                    Reading: Chapter 10

                                   

M 10/24                       Topic: Insider/Outsider

Reading: Smith, L. T. (1999). Decolonizing Methodologies: Research and Indigenous Peoples. Dunedin, New Zealand, University of Otago Press (pp. 123-141).

                                    Kāinga Dialogue #7

           

W 10/26                      Topic: Departures - Portraits of a Migrating Village

                                    Reading: Voyages (papes 3-29)

                                                                                                           

F 10/28                        Topic: Departures - Why Migrate

                                    Reading: Voyages (pages 30-50)

                                    Kāinga Dialogue #8

 

M 10/31                       Topic: Arrivals - Coming to America

                                    Reading: Voyages (pages 51-87)       

 

W 11/2                                    Topic:  Arrivals - One Family's Story

                                    Topic: Arrivals - Palu the One Who Left

                                    Reading: Voyages (88-100)

 

F 11/4                          Topic: Arrivals - Anthropologist Over Time

                                    Reading: Voyages (101-121)

                                    Kāinga Dialogue #9

 

M 11/7                         Topic: Returns - Going Home: Tongan Village Lifes in the 1990s

                                    Reading: Voyages (pages 121-146)

                                   

W 11/9                                    Topic: Returns - Tongans and Americans: Distant Families

                                    Topic: Returns - Finau: The One Who Stayed

Reading: Voyages (pages 147-170)

                                    Kāinga Dialogue #10

                                   

TH 11/11                     Topic: Returns - Tradition

                                    Reading: Voyages (pages 171-182)

 

M 11/14                       Topic: Travels Ahead – The Meaning of Tongan Migration

                                    Reading: Voyages (pages 183-205)

                                    Kāinga Dialogue #11

 

W 11/16                      Topic: Travels Ahead – Anthropology in a Transnational World

                                    Reading: Voyages (pages 206-216)

 

F 11/18                        Topic:  Indigenous Ethnographer

Reading: Tengan, T.K. (2005). Unsettling Ethnography: Tales of an ‘Ōiwi in the Anthropological Slot

                                    Kāinga Dialogue #12

                       

M 11/21                       Topic: Place and Ethnography

Reading: Gupta, A. F., J. (1997). Discipline and Practice: "The Field" as Site, Method, and Location in Anthropology. Anthropological Locations: Boundaries and Grounds of a Field Science. A. G. J. Ferguson. Berkeley, University of California Press.

 

W 11/23                      Topic: Time-Space and Ethnography

Reading: Mahina, O. (2004). Issues and Challenges in Pacific Research: Some Critical Comments. Research the Pacific and Indigenous Peoples: Issues and Perspectives. T. Baba, Mahina, O., Williams, N., & Nabobo-Baba, U. Auckland, N.Z., Centre for Pacific Studies, University of Auckland: 186-201.

Kāinga Dialogue #13

 

F 11/25                        No School – Thanksgiving Holiday

 

M 11/28                       Topic: Multi-Sited Ethnography

Reading: Marcus, G. E. (1995). "Ethnography in/of the World System: The Emergence of Multi-Sited Ethnography." Annual Review of Anthropology 24: 95-117.        

 

W 11/30                      Topic:The Internet and Ethnography

Reading: Miller, D. S., D. (2001). The Internet: An Ethnographic Approach. New York, Berg (pp.1-26)

Kāinga Dialogue #14

           

F 12/2                          Topic: Colonizing Knowledges

Reading: Smith, L. T. (1999). Decolonizing Methodologies: Research and Indigenous Peoples. Dunedin, New Zealand, University of Otago Press (pp. 58-77).

 

M 12/5                         Topic: Ethnographic Authority

Reading: Clifford, J. (1988). On Ethnographic Authority. The Predicament of Culture Twentieth-Century Ethnography, Literature, and Art. Massachusetts, Harvard University Press: 21-54.

Kāinga Dialogue #15

 

W 12/7                                    Group Presentations

 

F  12/9                         Group Presentations

 

M 12/12                       Final Paper Due