Type of course

Course content

The course will give students an overview of anthropological theory and epistemological issues in the social sciences, forming a background and theoretical foundation to their writing of a project description in which they identify research questions which are feasible and manageable within the limits of the fieldwork.

It also implies clarifying how the research questions are related to existing literature. Regional ethnographic literature, social science literature addressing the topic of research, and social science theory in general should be used.

Apart from lectures, the course consists of seminars in which the students` project descriptions for the master`s research project are further developed. 

An individual camera-based ethnographic fieldwork of 3-4 months duration is conducted.

Recommended prerequisites

Objectives of the course

Students who successfully complete this course should have achieved the following learning outcomes:

Knowledge

• know how to prepare, present and conduct a camera-based social scientific research project
• have solid knowledge of literature relevant to their Master¿s project, thematically.
• know what differentiates a research problematic from everyday problematic
• Practical and technical preparations

Skills

• be able to develop manageable research questions, and methodological and theoretical approaches for their master¿s project, and the chosen field of research.
• assess how their personal commitment relates to the chosen project.
• be able to demonstrate how the camera is going to be used in discovery of the cultural conventions of their research partners
• be able to demonstrate how they are going to create a film narrative rooted in their overall project

General competence

• be able to demonstrate how they are going to pursue their objectives and research questions through the choices of research partners and research settings.
• be able to demonstrate how the textual  and filmic representations are going to be related to each other.
• be able to identify and discuss the relevance of their project to; research partners, cultural diversity globally, development of methodological and theoretical refinement.

Language of instruction and examination

Teaching methods

Assessment

Course attendance is compulsory, i.e. only valid absences will be approved. A minimum presence of 80 % is required.

The course has a portfolio evaluation, and the following is required during the preparation of the individual portfolio.

Students must participate to the safety and security course in the field and submit the risk assessment form.

Students must submit the notification form to NSD.

Students must submit two drafts of their project description.

Conduct a camera based ethnographic fieldwork of 3-4 months..

The final portfolio must include the following:

• Project description for the Master¿s project with a special focus on the formulation and discussion of research question(s) and the theoretical and epistemological context.
• Literature review
• Approved risk assessment form.
• Fieldwork report reflecting on whether or not the fieldwork is fulfilling the expectations in the original project description and how to move forward.

Students are not admitted access to camera equipment and allowed to start fieldwork before the project description and the risk assessment are approved.

Marking is made according to a grading scale with "pass" / "fail". A re-sit exam will be arranged for this course.

Recommended reading/syllabus

Recommended reading/syllabus

SVF-3109 Anthropological Theory and Ethnographic Praxis, Spring 2018

* Abu-Lughod, L. (1991) Writing Against Culture. In Moore, H.L. and Sanders, T. (eds.) (2006) Anthropology in Theory. Issues in Epistemology. Blackwell Publishing, London. (466-479)

* Appadurai, A, (2000) Grassroots Globalization and the Research Imagination. In Moore, H.L. and Sanders, T. (eds.) (2006) Anthropology in Theory. Issues in Epistemology. Blackwell Publishing, London. (622-633)

Banks, M. (1996) Ethnicity: Anthropological Constructions. Routledge, London. (Ch. 1 & 2)

Barth, F. (1969) Introduction. In F. Barth (ed.) Ethnic groups and Boundaries. Universitetsforlaget, Oslo. (9-38)

* Bourdieu, P. (1977) Structures and Habitus. In Moore, H.L. and Sanders, T. (eds.) (2006) Anthropology in Theory. Issues in Epistemology. Blackwell Publishing, London. (407-416)

De Herdt, T. and Olivier de Sardan, J.P. (2015) Introduction: the game of the rules. In De Herdt and Olivier de Sardan (eds.) Real Governance and Practical Norms in Sub-Saharan Africa. The Game of the rules. Routledge, New York (1-16)

Dilley, Roy (2002), `The problem of context in social and cultural anthropology¿, In: Language and Communication, 22, pp. 437-456.

Eidheim, H. (1969) When Ethnic Identity becomes a Social Stigma. In F. Barth (ed.) Ethnic groups and Boundaries. Universitetsforlaget, Oslo. (39-57)

* Geertz, C. (1973) Thick Description. Towards an Interpretive Theory of Culture. In Moore, H.L. and Sanders, T. (eds.) (2006) Anthropology in Theory. Issues in Epistemology. Blackwell Publishing, London. (236-244)

Godelier, Maurice (2009), `Introduction: Anthropology Today ¿ What Have We Done and What Should We Do?¿, In: Godelier, M. , In and Out of the West. Reconstructing Anthropology, London: Verso, pp. 1-43, ISBN 978-1-84467-306-3.

Grønhaug, R. (1978) Scale as a Variable in Analysis: Fields in Social Organization in Herat; Northwest Afghanistan. In Scale and Social Organization. Barth, F (ed.) Universitetsforlaget, Oslo (78-121)

Gupta, A. and Ferguson, J. (1997) Discipline and Practice: `The Field¿ as Site, Method, and Location in Anthropology. In Gupta, A. and Ferguson, J. (eds.) Anthropological Locations. Boundaries and Grounds of a Field Science. University of California Press, London. (1-46)

@ Gutman, M.C. (1997) Trafficking in Men: The Anthropology of Masculinity. Annual Review of Anthropology, Vol 26:385-409. https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/2952528.pdf

Hannerz, Ulf (2010), `Diversity is our business¿, In: Hannerz, U., Anthropology¿s World. Life in a Twenty-First-Century Discipline, London: PlutoPress. Pp. 38-58, ISBN 978-0-7453-3047-1.

Ingold, T. (1992) Culture and the Perception of the Environment. In Croll, E. & D. Parkin (eds.), Bush Base: Forest Farm. Culture, Environment and Development. Routledge, London (39-55).

Jenkins, R. (2004) Social Identity. Routledge, London. (1-37)

@ Kottak, C.P. (1999) The New Ecological Anthropology. American Anthropologist, Vol. 101 (1):23-35. https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/683339.pdf

Madden, R. (2010), `Section Two: Doing Ethnography¿, In: Madden, Raymond, Being ethnographic. A Guide to the Theory and Practice of Ethnography, London: Sage Publications Ltd, pp. 57- 113, ISBN 978-1-4129-4697-1.

Morin, Edgar (2008), `The Paradigm of Complexity¿, Chapter 3 in Morin, Edgar, On Complexity, Cresskill, New Jersey: Hampton Press Inc., pp. 37-52, ISBN 978-1-57273-801-0.

* Moore, H.L. (2003) Global Anxieties: Concept Metaphors and Pre-theoretical Commitments in Anthropology. In Moore, H.L. and Sanders, T. (eds.) (2006) Anthropology in Theory. Issues in Epistemology. Blackwell Publishing, London. (443-456)

Moore, S.F. (1994) The Ethnography of the Present and the Analysis of Process. In Borofsky, R. (ed.) Assessing Cultural Anthropology. McGraw-Hill, New York. (362-375)

* Ortner, S. B. (1974) So Is Female to Male as Nature is to Culture. In Moore, H.L. and Sanders, T. (eds.) (2006) Anthropology in Theory. Issues in Epistemology. Blackwell Publishing, London. (437-442)

* Oyèrónké, O. (1997) The invention of Women. In Moore, H.L. and Sanders, T. (eds.) (2006) Anthropology in Theory. Issues in Epistemology. Blackwell Publishing, London. (540-545)

Rudie, I. (1994) Making sense of new experience. In Hastrup, K. og Hervik, P. (eds.) Social Experience and Anthropological Knowledge. Routledge, London. (28-44)

* Wolf, E. R. (1982) Europe and the people without history. In Moore, H.L. and Sanders, T. (eds.) (2006) Anthropology in Theory. Issues in Epistemology. Blackwell Publishing, London. (367-381)

@ Zeitlyn, D. (2009) Understanding anthropological understanding. For a merological anthropology. In Anthropological Theory, Vol. 9(2): 209-231. Sage Publications, Los Angeles. http://ant.sagepub.com/content/9/2/209.full.pdf+html

* In the following two books that must be bought (available at Akademisk kvarter). 

Madden, Raymond (2010), Being ethnographic. A Guide to the Theory and Practice of Ethnography, London: Sage Publications Ltd, ISBN 978-1-4129-4697-1.

Moore, H.L. and Sanders, T. (eds.) (2006) Anthropology in Theory. Issues in Epistemology. Blackwell Publishing, London.