DISCUSSION QUESTION

  • What are the main elements of an ethnographic writing style? How are ethnographic texts normaly organized? What makes a good introduction?
  • If you were an anthropologist, what culture/subculture/issue would you like to study or issue would you like to learn about? Why?
  • Where would you need to go to do this study?
  • What would the focus of your study be? Broad or narrow? How might it contribute to previous studies or knowledge?
  • How would you do the research? How would you get there? Where would you live? How long would you stay? What would you do in the field?
  • How might your personal characteristics (gender/race/ethnicity/culture) create opportunities and/or constraints in the field? How might those characteristics have impacted your choice of topic and/or your research and interpretation of results?
  • What are the essential elements of an effective “arrival scene”?
  • Whose approch to culture and ethnography would you draw on? Malinowski? Mead? Geertz?