PARTICIPANT OBSERVATION PROJECT/ETHNOGRAPHIC REPORT
This project asks you to become a participant-observer and to prepare a short ethnographic report. As you know from working through the modules and completing assignments, anthropologists engage in participant observation in order to learn from members of a cultural group (i.e., to attempt to understand the meanings of practices and experiences from insiders’ points of view). STEP I: GETTING STARTED(Due on Canvas, Thursday, 7/2–5 points)1) Choose a safe, legal activity or event involving religion, magic, witchcraft, or spirituality that is familiar or unfamiliar to you. I chose Catholic Church and use Bielo′s methodological theistic, understanding and observing how they think, feel, and explain the deeper meaning of the service. 2) Unless the event is a large, public gathering with no designated coordinators, you should explain your project to event coordinators and other participants, if feasible, beforehand and gain their verbal consent to engage in participant observation among them. Be sure to tell them that you will be preparing a report for and possibly describingyour experience in ourclass.3) As soon as you gain consent and schedule your participant observation, but no later thanThursday, July 2, write a one-or two-paragraph summary of what you plan to do, when, where and why.Explain which of the “methodological postures” (Bielo, 2015, pp. 41-44) you will assume and why.Also include what tools you plan to use (e.g., note-taking, photographing, videotaping, screen grabs), and whose permission you obtained to proceed.On Canvas wewill discuss your plans, offering each otheradvice, such as what the ethnographer could focus on whileat the eventor doing the activity.STEP II: PARTICIPANT OBSERVATION1) Attend the event/activity at least one time.2) Engageyour senses to experience the event, and focus on the following interconnected factors:SETTING –Whatare thespecific characteristics of the physical and social arenasfor action? Whenand wheredoes the event unfold? Make a map or diagram of the place, or, if you havetheparticipants’ permission, tape record, photograph, or videotape all or part of the event. Note the wealth of sounds, smells,and sights in the setting. Based on your knowledge and Los Angeles Pierce CollegeSummer20202observation, does the activity occur frequently, at regular intervals,on special occasions, or during certain times of the year?PARTICIPANTS -Whoare the people involved? How are the people in the setting alike? How are they different? How do the people locate themselves within the place? How do you locate yourself within the place? Note attributes of particular people, including their age, gender, race/ethnicity, ways of speaking, dress, socioeconomic status, or any other attributesthat seem especially salient. Record as accurately as possible whatand howparticular people say and do, using James Spradley’s verbatim principle. Focus on people’s verbal choices and non-verbal cues (eye contact, touch, physical space, intervals ofsilence). Whatattitudes and emotions are they conveying? Howdo the people and events make you feel?TOPICS–Whatbrings the participants together and what are they talking about?Catalogue the range of topics, focusing on what is said and unsaid. How does the setting constrain and facilitate the range of topics discussed?GOALS –What are the various participants’ individual and communal goals? Do goals vary depending on participants’ roles and status within the setting? Why do you think the people are engaged in this activity or practice?STEP III: DESCRIPTIVE WRITE UP (Approximately threetyped, double-spaced pages –25points–Draft dueon Canvas, Sunday, 7/12, for Peer Review. Review of your peer’s draft due by Sunday, 7/19.)1) Write detailed notes (or speak them into a tape recorder) as soon after the event aspossible. Be sure to cover as many of the questions outlined aboveas possible.2) Prepare a three-page typed desсrіption that captures your experience andaddresses the questions above. Include any maps, diagrams, drawings, photographs, or videotapes produced during step II. Los Angeles Pierce CollegeSummer20203STEP IV: ANALYSIS/INTERPRETATION (Approximately threetyped, double-spaced pages –20points–Due on CanvasSunday, 7/26,alongwith your final draft of Step III.)1) What tentative evaluations and interpretations can you draw from your write-up? (Be sure to explain whether the event or activity was familiar or unfamiliar to you at the outset.)a.What is emphasized and what is left out of your account?b.What general insights does yourdesсrіption yield?c.What explicit and tacit communicative norms or otheraspect of culture have you uncovered?d.Explore the cultural messages, purposes, or significance of the activities described. You are encouraged to apply anthropological concepts from any of the course readings to your analysis. Original use of such concepts is the benchmark of excellent work. However, because you are analyzing people based on only one observation from one or two events, any conclusions and generalizations you make should be tentative.2) What have you learned about participant observation from this exercise?a.What do you know about the people and activity you studied? What don’t you know?b.What have you learned about yourself?c.If you were to continue to do ethnography among the people you encountered at this event, what would you do nextand why?Your final drafts of Steps III and IV are due on Canvas by Sunday, 7/26, at 11:59pm