It is also designed to evoke from readers a sense of the kind of attitude and style found in Raymond Chandler detective mysteries. In truth, at this point in my fi eldwork, I don’t recall having any such thoughts
Where is the line between how sexy you get to make the story and when it stops properly representing the group with which you are working?
am big on parking lots as evidence of organizational dramas because in this culture of hypercapitalism and commodity values you are what you drive at least as much as you are what you wear, eat, listen to, or talk about.
This comment in itself requires cultural context and understanding.
So what interests and attracts you about your project will always infl uence what you record and how you write about it
This is good to keep in mind in that we should focus on the unattractive parts of whatever we are studying as well in order to gather the picture at large.
This question helps you keep track of your assumptions throughout the fi eldwork process.
I've never before considered how seeing what surprises us can be self-reflective, I really appreciate that as a practice.
By the end of a month, she knew her study would be about gender and conversation in a college writing classroom.
As we progress with our subculture work, should we start with a completely blank canvas and find out what our study is about rather than going in with an idea of what it is we are trying to capture?
What was important?
It is difficult as an outsider to know what actually may important in a scene and what may not be significant.
He uses his interpretive skills as an ethnographer to create a parody — in jest and fun — to allow his family to see themselves as an outsider might describe them
I really enjoy the use of parody in order to turn a mirror on parts of ourselves (this goes across the board for pieces of culture such as comedy).
By learning from people in a culture what it is like to be part of their world, fi eldworkers discover a culture’s way of being, knowing, and understanding
Anthropology gets trickier when the person whose work gets published is not actually a member of that society. While we can agree the best ethnographic work would be produced given the opportunity to involve actual members of the society (and many would strive to incorporate this practice), my point is that the line should never be crossed where extracting the knowledge (and then receiving credit for an ethnography) becomes appropriation. This may happen if members of a culture do not benefit from the research being done.
high culture”
I have heard this being referred to as, "Culture with a capital C."
Studying and writing about diverse people and cultures does not necessarily make us accept difference, but it can make us aware of our assumptions and sometimes even of our prejudices.
I would argue that recognizing our own prejudice is the first step toward accepting differences; in this way, writing and studying others does make us more accepting in the long-term.
When we visit another country, we need to learn new rules for intro-ductions and farewells in order to behave appropriately.
This comment reminds me of the times in which I've felt culture shock, and makes me wonder if any of us will feel culture shock as we continue with our subculture studies.