My responsibility is to maintain the professional and academic standards of St Francis Xavier University as well as those of my discipline as I teach course material and foster the development of critical academic reading, researching, analytical and writing skills in students. I will endeavour to do this in a way that recognizes that students have other demands on their time, and within the constraints presented by my other teaching, administrative and research duties. I will return marked assignments as quickly as I can and am happy to meet with students to discuss the course.

Students have the responsibility to maintain the academic integrity of St Francis Xavier University (see Section 3.8 of the Academic Calendar and the Policy on Academic Integrity at http://www.mystfx.ca/services/registrar/academic_integrity_document.pdf) as they engage in learning the material and skills presented in the course. Students must attend class, read the required readings prior to the class in which they will be discussed, and complete assignments according to the schedule given in the course. In extraordinary circumstances supported by documentation, students may be permitted to submit assignments at a later time, although a deduction of 5 % per day may be applied. In no case will assignments be accepted after those submitted on the normal due date have been returned to their authors. Returned marked assignments must be kept until the end of the course.

Sept. 13-15: Introduction to course:

READ: Willis, Paul and Mats Trondman (2000) "Manifesto for Ethnography." Ethnography 1(1): 5-16. Sage. URL: http://eth.sagepub.com/content/1/1/5.full.pdf+html

Additional reading:

Behar, Ruth (1993) "Women writing culture: Another telling of the story of American anthropology." Critique of Anthropology 13(4): 307-325. Sage.

Behar, Ruth (1999) "Ethnography: Cherishing our second-fiddle genre." Journal of Contemporary Ethnography 28; 472-484. Sage. http://jce.sagepub.com/cgi/reprint/28/5/472.pdf

Behar, Ruth (2007) "Ethnography in a Time of blurred genres." Anthropology & Humanism.

32(2):145-155. Anthrosource.

Burawoy, Michael (2003) "Revisits: An Outline of a Theory of Reflexive Ethnography." American Sociological Review, 68(5): 645-679. Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1519757

Leach, Edmund (1989) "Writing Anthropology." American Ethnologist 16(1): 137-141 Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/644794

Marcus, George E (2002) "Beyond Malinowski and after writing culture: On the future of cultural anthropology and the predicament of ethnography." The Australian Journal of Anthropology.13(2):191-200, Proquest.

Sanjek, Roger (1991) "The Ethnographic Present." Man, New Series 26(4): 609-628. JSTOR Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2803772

Urry, James (2006) "The Ethnographicisation of Anglo-American Anthropology: Causes and Consequences." SITES 3(2): 3-39. URL: http://sites.otago.ac.nz/index.php/Sites/article/viewFile/14/2

An example of classical ethnography

READ: Gluckman, Max (1968) ‘Inter-hierarchical Roles: Professional and Party Ethics in Tribal Areas in South and Central Africa’, in M.J. Swartz (ed.) Local-Level Politics: Social and Cultural Perspectives, pp. 69–93. Chicago, IL: Aldine. http://www6.ufrgs.br/horizon/files/antropolitica/gluckman_roles.pdf

An example of contemporary ethnography

READ: Bernstein, Elizabeth (2001) "The Meaning of the Purchase: Desire, Demand and the Commerce of Sex." Ethnography 2(3): 389-420.

http://eth.sagepub.com/cgi/reprint/2/3/389

Fiction as ethnography

READ: Deloria, Ella (1988) Excerpt from Waterlily. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 141-162. Available at the library.

Additional reading: Finn, Janet (1993) "Ella Cara Deloria and Mourning Dove: writing for cultures, writing against the grain." Critique of Anthropology 13(4): 335-349. Sage

The photograph

READ: Lutz, Catherine and Jane Collins (1991) "The photography as an intersection of gazes: The example of National Geographic." Visual Anthropology Review 7(1): 134-149. Anthrosource

Additional Reading:

Bourdieu, Pierre (1991) "Towards a Sociology of Photography'." Visual Anthropology Review 7(1): 129-133. Anthrosource

READ: Marks, Dan (1995) "Ethnography and Ethnographic Film: From Flaherty to Asch and after" American Anthropologist 97(2): 339-347. JSTOR

Films: examples of some classics (In the land of the war canoes, Nanook of the North,)

October 27: Ethnographic film: Technology, technique

READ: MacDougall, David (2001) "Renewing Ethnographic Film: Is Digital Video Changing the Genre?" Anthropology Today, 17(3):15-21 Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2678157

Film: Chronique d’un été, The Ax fight

November 1-3: Visual anthropology: the impact of media and media as subject

READ: Werner, Jean-François (2006) "How Women Are Using Television to Domesticate Globalization: A Case Study on the Reception and Consumption of Telenovelas in Senegal." Visual Anthropology 19(5): 443-472, AnthroSource. URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/08949460600961331

ALSO READ: Abu-Lughod, Lila ( 1993) "Islam and Public Culture: The Politics of Egyptian Television Serials." Middle East Report. 180: 25-30. JSTOR. Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3013229

Additional readings:

Ginsburg, Faye (1994) "Culture/Media: A (Mild) Polemic." Anthropology Today 10(2):5-15. JSTOR

MacDougall, David (1978) "Ethnographic Film: Failure and Promise." Annual Review of Anthropology 7: 405-425. JSTOR

Ruby, Jay (1991) "Speaking for, speaking about, speaking with, or speaking alongside – an anthropological and documentary dilemma." Visual Anthropology Review 7(2): 50-67. Anthrosource.

Ruby, Jay (2005) "The last 20 years of visual anthropology – a critical review." Visual Studies 20(2): 159-170. Taylor and Francis Journals Online.

Wright, Chris (1998) "The Third Subject: Perspectives on Visual Anthropology." Anthropology Today 14(4):16-22 JSTOR

WATCH: Wesch, Michael (2008) An anthropological introduction to YouTube.. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TPAO_lZ4_hU&feature=channel

Assignment 1: DUE 4 OCTOBER. This assignment gives you practice with the elements that go into essay writing in order to provide a rough template for the essay due later in the term. An essay is the presentation of an argument, in which you try to convince a reader of your point of view.

Using the Deloria reading as the context, answer the question: "Can ethnography be presented as fiction?"

In this assignment you will develop:

1) an argument (the answer to the question, plus a brief reason);

2) present the theoretical stance which helps you develop your argument (this will be your definition of "ethnography;" you will derive this from the Willis and Trondman reading);

3) provide enough context about the Deloria reading so that a reader who does not know the article can make sense of your assignment;

4) present evidence from the readings so far to support your argument; REMEMBER TO EXPLAIN THE EVIDENCE IN TERMS OF THE THEORETICAL STANCE!!!

5) a conclusion, in which you review your argument and add some further inflection (e.g. "Only time will tell ...", or "Further study on _ is needed to settle this question conclusively," etc.). This assignment should be about 500 words in length and should have headings for each section. A model will be made available to you.

Some rules:

1) Use the style described at http://www.mystfx.ca/academic/anthropology/Essay%20Style%20Guide.html

2) Abide by the StFX Academic Integrity Policy: (http://www.mystfx.ca/services/registrar/academic_integrity_document.pdf)

3) You are permitted no more than ONE direct quotation from your sources, and this quotation may be no more than 30 words in length. For all other references to content from your sources you must paraphrase.

Assignment 2: This will be an assignment on library research skills. See assignment description.

Term paper: DUE 17 NOVEMBER. This assignment builds your critical research, reading, analytical and writing skills.

Write a 7 to 10 page ESSAY answering one of the following questions.

1) Focusing on either television or cell phones, examine the impact of this technology on a specific group of people. The Werner and Abu-Lughod readings can serve as models, but NOT as your major source material. You may use readings from the "additional readings" list on this outline, as well as other academic sources. You must have 5 ethnographic sources in your bibliography. You are very strongly encouraged to consult with me about your sources to ensure that they are appropriate.

2) A topic of your choice, which MUST be approved by me. You could examine, for example, the recent ethnographic material on virtual worlds (Tom Boellstoerff’s Coming of Age in Second Life, along with other academic material), critically examine an ethnographic film, etc.

Some rules:

1) Use the style described at http://www.mystfx.ca/academic/anthropology/Essay%20Style%20Guide.html

2) Abide by the StFX Academic Integrity Policy: (http://www.mystfx.ca/services/registrar/academic_integrity_document.pdf)

3) You are permitted no more than THREE direct quotations from your sources, and none of these three quotations may be more than 30 words in length. For all other references to content from your sources you must paraphrase.

You will be marked on:

1) the quality, strength and clarity of your argument;

2) the quality and clarity of your evidence, including the quality of the sources you use;

3) the appropriateness of the theoretical framework and the quality of the analysis (that is, how well you use the theoretical framework to analyse the evidence);

4) the style and structure of the paper, including proper and complete referencing, grammar, spelling, word use, sentence structure, essay structure, etc.

Quiz and Exam: The quiz and exams will be composed of short written answer and essay questions.