ANTH 233 Ethnographic Studies
Winter 2019
I acknowledge that St FX is in Mi’kma’ki, the ancestral and unceded territory of the Mi’kmaq People.

Jan 14, 17, 21, 24: Writing, from classical to contemporary ethnography, to other forms of writing
    Fiction as ethnography. Compare the fictional account with an ethnographic account of Afghan refugees in Iran.
    READ: Yarbakhsh, Elisabeth. 2018. “Call.” Anthropology and Humanism, 43(1): 159–164
    Compare with:  Olszewska, Zuzanna. 2013. “Classy Kids and Down-at-Heel Intellectuals: Status Aspiration and Blind Spots in the Contemporary Ethnography of Iran.” Iranian Studies, 46:6, 841-862,

- remember to keep in mind the different perspectives of Howell, Ingold and Kolshus
    - how was the information gathered?
    - is it descriptive? Theoretically informed? Comparative? Culturally relative?
    - is it with or of the people?
    - is the writing accessible?
    -  voice/authority/politics of representation
    - engagement with literature
    - how is the population described in terms of homogeneity/heterogeneity?
    - is the society described as dynamic or static?
    - what is the role of over-arching political, legal, economic, cultural (etc.) structures within which this society is placed? How isolated/separate is it from other societies?
    - what is the relationship of this work with respect to policy?
    - what is the positionality of the author?

Comparing Yarbakhsh and Olszewska:    
    - what ideas, information, debates, etc, can be presented in fiction?
    - what ideas, information, debates, etc, can be presented in fiction?
    - are both accessibly written?
        - who is the intended audience of each?
    - can both present context, theoretical framing, debates, and so on?
    - what are the themes pursued in each article?
    - how is agency presented in each?
    - what are the questions of voice/authority for each work?