Thinking Like an Anthropologist
Exploring our own indigenous identity. The Field Notes assignments are our method for compiling and interpreting the information that we will synthesize in the Final Project.
An ethnographic study often consists of participant observation of a culture or group along with other investigations. There are numerous other techniques and types of information that can be gathered, such as life stories, genealogy, and cultural history (see Thinking Like an Anthropologist, pp. 71-72, for a full list). For the Field Notes portion of this course, you will treat your own indigenous identity as the subject of an ethnographic study.
An anthropologist's Field Notes may contain notes, descriptions, drawings, analysis, and reflection.
However, for the purposes of the Field Notes assignments in this course, you will be required to submit finished papers that adhere to high academic literacy standards.
Field Notes 1
This week, you learned about the humanistic approach to anthropology as presented in Thinking Like an Anthropologist. The article "Traces of a Distant Past" presents a scientific approach to tracing the indigenous roots of humanity. In your Field Notes for this week, you will present a brief summary of your indigenous identity and examine the application of anthropological perspectives.
Questions about this assignment? Post them in the Ask the Instructor area. That way, everyone in the class will see, and benefit from, the Instructor's response.
To prepare for this assignment:
- Review the Learning Resources for this week, especially the chapters assigned in Thinking Like An Anthropologist. You may also consider beginning your search by using sites similar to Family Search or Ellis Island, as noted in the Optional Resources.
- Summarize your current understanding of your own indigenous identity. (Remember that your indigenous heritage, culture, or community will be referred to with the umbrella description indigenous identity.)
- Consider how the various anthropological approaches to an ethnographic study can influence the exploration of your own indigenous identity.
- Examine aspects of your own indigenous identity in reference to the various anthropological perspectives.
The assignment:
- Compose a 1- to 2-page paper in which you do the following:
-
- Provide a brief summary of your current understanding of your own indigenous identity.
- Describe how you can apply an anthropological perspective to the ethnographic study of your own indigenous identity.
Discuss which anthropological perspective or perspectives seem most useful to you at this early stage of your study.