Ethnographic Fieldwork Assignment
Goal: To collect two (2) forms of ethnographic data for your final project. For your final project, you are required to 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??
