Field Ethnography : A Manual for Doing Cultural Anthropology

Rating:
Summary: Learn ethnography by doing ethnography.
Review: This ethnography book does not read like a textbook, and it is not intended to be one. Instead, it is a project manual, briefly outlining five ethnographic assignments, and then including a number of papers from various students as examples.

The book is deliberately low on theory, and approaches ethnography from a more postmodern point of view, encouraging students to be reflexive and to write of their personal experiences and emotions. At the same time, the author states the importance of separating data from analysis, to help the ethnographer be more objective. The analysis of the data, where the ethnographer interprets the motives and emotions, is important but separate. He also gives further readings at the end of each assignment, knowing that this book does not go into much depth in either theory or practice.

The whole purpose of this book is teach ethnography by doing ethnography. The first three assignments are short and are designed to get the inexperienced student started in ethnography. The project descriptions are only about two pages long, and then each assignment has several example papers. The first is the map and description of a block, the second is a retrospective assignment on private language, and the third assignment is to study body language. All of these assignments help to sharpen the eye of the student in areas where they need to be observant.

The final two assignments are much bigger. One is a study on ritual, and the final assignment Kutsche calls "The Big Ethnography." This project is designed to last about a month. The final 100 pages of the book are devoted to eight exemplary student ethnographies.

Although the book was enjoyable to read, its strength really would come from actually doing the assignments, and if a class were not willing to do so, I think another book would be more appropriate. It is designed for an introductory class in ethnography, and is not written to be a reference for a field ethnographer, or for an advanced ethnography student.

In general I found the book somewhat refreshing in that it had short descriptions of the assignments, and then lots of case studies. For an introductory class in ethnography, it could be a good book if the professor was willing to have the students go through the assignments. But I would recommend the professor read the book through first before deciding to use it as a project manual.