Spring20Methods

Look at this short article on mapping, and the importance of COGNITIVE MAPPING in ethnography. This requires that maps show the importance of spaces, not just the drawing of them in two dimensions, in fact, cognitive maps have been made to EMPHASIZE the important spaces more detail larger particular attention to activities of certain kinds in spaces CLICK HERE and HERE for a more elaborate explanation of some of the concepts we will be covering when considering mapping   

Sidewalk Personalities Play a Role in Public Spaces Not just BOOK vendors (Hakim and Jerome) representatives of their community trusted gate-keepers people with information (directions, advice, suggestions, warnings) mentors/counselors Hakim in the role of " old head " (African American tradition of mentor informal relationship between old men and younger children and adults teach, support, encourage and socialize young men to be responsible Black adults can also be young women replace or enhance relationship of father voluntary relationship old head represents positive values for young men not just very successful people, but people they can relate to as role models " Black Spaces ": How are they defined? content of conversation types of books patrons location class Old Heads and the exercise of " influence " advice need not be followed for the relationship to maintain itself crux of relationship is the importance of conti

Learning How To Look: "Deep Observation" and "Thick Description": Beginner's Mind (assume you know nothing and look at everything with fresh eyes) Take your time (hang out at your block at all different times of the day, weather, etc.) Look for the unusual in the usual Describe everything in as much detail as possible, you never know what will be important later. look everywhere: up, down, sideways. Click   here  for a great article on looking by a photographer and writer. What to Jot about:                                                                  Notes observations impressions personal feelings tentative explanations behaviors body language sketches of places words (vocabulary) scents, sounds Students need to make a distinction between what they OBSERVE and how they INTERPRET what they observe  (keep them separate---the whats and the whys)                                                              

What Are They? All of us have a sense of place about locations that are important to us, and strong meanings and emotions linked to these intimate spaces. Hometowns, idyllic vacations spots, grandparents’ houses with their sights and smells; these places are linked to familiar landscapes that comfort us even when they are not particularly beautiful or comfortable.  Nonfiction writers like Barry Lopez and Wallace Stenger speak about the importance of place in shaping human experience. As Stenger notes in his essay A Sense of Place , a place becomes significant not only because of its physical existence and the events that happen there, but because it is remembered and recounted in the memories of a community: …[A] place is not a place until people have been born in it, have grown up in it, lived in it, known it, died in it – have both experienced and shaped it, as individuals, families, neighborhoods, and communities, over more than one generation. Some are born in their pla

"Because you have seen something doesn't mean you can explain it. Differing interpretations will always abound, even when good minds come to bear. The kernel of indisputable information is a dot in space; interpretations grow out of the desire to make this point a line, to give it direction. The directions in which it can be sent, the uses to which it can be put by a culturally, professionally, and geographically diverse society are almost without limit. The possibilities make good scientists chary."  (Barry Lopez (2013). “Arctic Dreams”, p.190, Open Road Media) "The stories people tell have a way of taking care of them. If stories come to you, care for them. And learn to give them away where they are needed. Sometimes a person needs a story more than food to stay alive. That is why we put these stories in each other's memories. This is how people care for themselves.” ~ Barry Lopez (Barry Lopez (2013). “Arctic Dreams”, p.190, Open Road Media)

Fieldwork/Field Methods Fieldwork is the foundation of creating ethnography in anthropology The field is the site for doing research, and fieldworking is the process of doing it although there are other methods, participant-observation is the principle method for collecting data when fieldworking P-O studies people within the context of their (sub) culture fieldworking requires an emic and etic perspective emic: from the perspective (voice/worldview) of a member of the culture etic: from the outsider (anthropologist/observer's) perspective Everyday experience is the hallmark of good ethnography fieldworking helps you to look at everyday experiences in new ways good ethnography illustrates the importance of the everyday (mundane). Anthropologists study others so that we can understand more about ourselves (and the human condition) we are often unaware of our our culture and motivations we tend to ignore the familiar we fail to analyze our own lives, becau

WATCH VIDEO HERE