Reading Ethnography

Course Description

Summary

This course is an advanced exploration of theory and the history of anthropology by using the most basic of anthropological texts, the ethnography. By carefully analyzing a series of classic and more current ethnographies, students will look at the relationship between approaches, how ethnographic data is presented to the reader and how the shape of the text determines how the material is being understood. Students will explore concepts of subjectivity, the construction of narrative and the relationship between the anthropologist, the reader and the text. Students will be required to participate actively in the analysis of each text as well as analyzing texts outside of class.