Social Anthropology 1A: The Life Course (SCAN080132023)
Class notes
Social Anthropology 1A: full course lecture notes
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Course
Social Anthropology 1A: The Life Course (SCAN080132023)
Institution
The University Of Edinburgh (ED)
In-depth and relevant notes taken during Social Anthropology 1A: The Life Course in the fall semester of 2023. Notes follow lecture slides and the various lecturer's anecdotes which provide further insight into the study of anthropology. These notes set a sufficient framework for deeper study. fi
Social Anthropology 1A: The Life Course (SCAN080132023)
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Lecture One 9/18
This American Life, Picture Day, 2011 (Ira Glass)
Similar goal: same photo/ consistency/ superficiality - how effective is the medium of
photography at preserving memory? (Example of a limited use of ethnography) Use of empirical
evidence
Theme of memory, impermanence
Yearbook photos: Attempt to preserve
High school: time of discovery,
Nationwide tradition
One person that everyone knows: Sydney Jonatwik
Tries to make herself known
Ira Glass’ argument (yearbook photos don’t preserve the truth, or the exact memory
Memory is fickle
Everybody submits to having their photos taken. Students submit to instruction from teachers
and authority figures. Broader social pattern of obedience within schools where the entirety of
instruction (and perceived success) is only received through obedience.
—----
Ethnography: the method of social anthropology
1. Participant observation
a. (ex. Observing, conversating, learning customs and norms)
b. Ethnographers participate in the rituals of everyday life
2. Moving from observations to theorizing about the culture
3. Positionality and reflexivity
a. All knowledge is “situated” “there is no view from nowhere” meaning inherent
bias, use of cultural relativism is crucial. No such thing as purely objective
knowledge
Course Logistics:
Lectures get taken down after two weeks
,Seminar One 9/19
What story would you tell if you wanted to explain the town you grew up in?
I would tell the story of my high school. I would explain how multi-cultural it is, that over ninety
languages are spoken by its students. I would ramble on about the empanadas downs the street
and the block parties that spring up during the summer. I would talk about our status as a title
one school and, its parallel, the joy of the students that attend it. I would talk about graduation,
the shouts of families who are celebrating their first graduate. I would talk about the passion and
the art, and the places the residents of Lancaster have cultivated just for themselves. I would
talk about the garden in the back of the school, the football stadium where, despite years and
years of demoralizing losses, students cheer at every friday.
McGranahan, Carole. 2015. "Anthropology as Theoretical Storytelling." Available at the blog
formerly known as "Savage Minds."
“As ethnographers we are expected to travel somewhere even if that somewhere is a return trip
to a lost home, but always with the commitment to bring back a story.” -Ruth Behar 2003
Anthropologists data is stories.
Research Ethics
➔ What do we owe to the people we interview?
➔ Anonimize people, Name changes, small details (number of children, etc) but not to the
point it affects data.
➔ Empathy, cultural relativism, (when encountering, don’t condemn, situate controversial
views in the context of their lives)
➔ No covert research, get research consent always (take into consideration power
dynamics, etc)
Research Interactment
➔ Your work should build on the work of others
➔ Essentially respond to other research with “Yes, and-”
➔ Disagreement is allowed and important
Portfolio due November 30th
Four practical assessment each item worth 25%
Which is in turn worth 10%
,Item 1: Ethnographic Storytelling
Item 2: Peer Review
Item 3: Getting to know the subject area
Item 4: Report on an anthropologist
Item 1:
Research Ethics
➔ Explain who you are, what your are doing and why
➔ Don’t involve children
Item 1 Assessment Criteria
● Clarity and quality of writing, including grammar and
Presentation.
● Level of engagement with material generated by
Edinburgh exploration.
● Connection between reflection and story – i.e. clear
indication of why you chose to write the way you did
Reading: The subject, method, and scope of this inquiry 9/20
In ethnography the writer is his own chronicler and the historian at the same time, his sources
are embodied in the behaviour and in the memory of living men.
Principles of Enquiry Method
➔ Real scientific aims
◆ Know the values and criteria of modern ethnography
◆ Be flexible with hypotheses and accept evidence that proves you were wrong
➔ Put oneself in a conditions of work
◆ That is in and amongst the community you are trying to observe
◆ Not just plunging into the community but truly living in it
◆ Constant presence allows assimilation and true observance
◆ Ask specific questions, not sweeping ones, ask for examples
, ● Instead of “what effect does your education system have on its pupils?”
ask” “is an upcoming exam causing stress?” “does your child go to school
everyday?”
◆ Things that happen everyday should be written down
- Firm outline of tribal constitution and cultural items (culture and tradition)
- Daily life data/ordinary behaviour (routine prescribed by culture and tradition)
- The culture’s views and opinions (commentary that goes alongside carrying out said
routine)
Ethnographic field work must be approached through three avenues
1. Organization of the tribe and its culture through concrete, statistical documentation
2. The imponderabilia of actual life: the things that cannot be viewed in any way except
from inside a community and type of behavior through minute, detailed observations.
3. Collection of ethnographic statements, typical phrases, items of folklore should be given
as documents.
To study the institutions, customs, and codes or to study the behaviour and mentality without
the subjective desire of feeling by what these people live, of realising the substance of their
happiness— is, in my opinion, to miss the greatest reward which we can hope to obtain from
the study of man.
Malinowski, Bronislaw. Argonauts of the Western Pacific, Taylor & Francis Group, 2014.
The founding work of anthropology. Use of Pejorative terms.
Having faith in empathy is part of trusting ethnography.
Ethnographers were originally sent to communities by colonial governments in order to further
colonization by providing information to the government to help them rule.
Reading: Anthropology goes to Wall Street 9/20
Everytime big companies have a soar in profits, there is a record leap in layoffs or everytime
there is a record leap in layoffs big companies profit substantially.
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