anth326 meeting 8 (final)
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ANTH326 Peoples and Cultures of Sub-Saharan Africa
Meeting 8, October 29, 2007
Business
• Media Critique (due next Monday)• Journal• Final Examination: Dec. 7, 14:00-17:00, H433• Owusu and Diop Themes (teams)• Identity and Ethnography• Owusu and Diop Discussion• Project Plans
Themes
• Team reporter• Explain themes• Insight on texts• Links with course
Team 1
• Insider/outsider• Language in fieldwork• Using/speaking language• Critical history of anthropology
Team 2
• Ethnographer bias • What can relate to• Fit into structure• Western, foreign• Biases, inaccuracies• Lens/filter
Team 3
• Roles of native/colonial language• Western/native ideologies• Interpreter/informant biases• Histrorical division, ahistorical, static, holistic• Time as underrepresented• Dialogue Native/Western anthropologists
Team 4
• Importance of learning local language• Eurocentric prejudice• Consequences of anthro/ethnography on
local• Framing of ethnography for Western societies
“Identity”
Sameness and Otherness
Social Identity
• Core of social sciences• Insiders/outsiders• Belonging/contrasting• “We-ness” (Schütz) / Distinction(Bourdieu)
“Is African” / “Is Western”
• Origins?• Representative?• Typical?• Traditional?
Nativeness
• Born on site• Indigenous• Territory• Ancestors• Native-speakers• As ethnographers
Otherness in ethnography
• Differences and similarities• Diversity and universality• Constructing wholes• Crisis of representation
“Configuration”
• Fit together• Fluidity• Other possibilities• Appiah at Pop!Tech on “Golden Nugget”
Ethnography
Ethnographic Disciplines
• Ethnology– Cultural anthropology (North America)– Social anthropology (France, UK)
• Folkloristics• Linguistic anthropology• Ethnomusicology• Ethnomethodology (sociology)• Ethnohistory
Ethnographic Methods
• Review of literature• Language learning• Preliminary fieldwork• Extensive field stay– Participant-observation– Open-ended interviews
Insight
• Understand• Grok• “Got it”• Possible predictive value– E.g. Alexis de Tocqueville on America
Cultural Translation
• Implied otherness• Get others to understand• Interpretive anthropology (Geertz)• “Spirit/letter of the culture” (of the law)
Building Models
• Testing models• Empiricism• Forest, not trees• “Two Crows denies it” (Dorsey's disclaimer)• All Grammars Leak (Sapir 1921:39)• Dialogue
Ngolo Diarra Enters the Field
• Ethnomusicology, linguistic anthropology• Interest in “griots”• Bamanan learning• Hunter-musician Madou Diarra• Thesis on proper names• Preliminary field trip (Yoro Sidibe)• Establishing rapport
Readings
Owusu
Language
• Language in fieldwork• Importance of learning local language• Using/speaking language• Roles of native/colonial/trade languages– “Code-Switching”
Insider/outsider
• Western/native ideologies• Dialogue Native/Western anthropologists• Eurocentric prejudice
Critical history of anthropology
• Framing of ethnography for Western societies• Consequences of anthro/ethnography on
local• Time as underrepresented• Historical division– Ahistorical, Static, Holistic (synchronic)
Bias
• Biases, inaccuracies• Interpreter/informant biases• Lens/filter• Ethnographer bias – What can relate to– Western, foreign– Fit into structure
Project Plans
Project Plans
• Focus on improving work• Learning experience• Suggestions, advice–Aim at insight– Connect with course
• Similarities between projects
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