Eleventh and Thirteenth classes: Ethnography

Ethnography is a weird thing. It is fieldwork at its most basic, on one level. You go somewhere and observe. It is highly subjective, but over time one gets to see patterns. What you are creating is a primary document that can be later translated into something more textual: it is a record of your impressions and observations there.

The idea I try to put across is that you are doing what you do normally: you go into a space and try and figure out what is going on and how you should operate. To do ethnography, reflect on what you do when you go to a new place for the first time. You tend to hang back and check things out a little bit, get the lay of the land, see what happens and where, see if you can figure out what you should and shouldn't, can and can't do.

The ethnographer does the same thing, albeit with the intent of translating that experience into a more formal text that will be read by an undisclosed third person.

With that in mind, we went out boldly into the world (the cafeteria) and as a group recorded what happened. Each person was seemingly dissatisfied with the activity (and with the entire exercise) but, when we got back, it was weird to hear what other people had seen, how they created shorthand for it, and so on.

In the middle of everything I went to Milwaukee for the annual meeting of the American Folklore Society. So here are three cool things from there:

1. The Onion started there, and they give out free copies.
2. Lots of German's (Budweiser, Schlitz, etc.) so ate German food.
3. Not a huge amount of Africans (at least not compared with Germans) but that doesn't stop one from eating at African Hut and ordering the Mandingo Warrior Platter. (Get menu here.)

Get the ethnography assignment handout here.