Assignment #2:
Fieldwork techniques: The Ethnographic Interview
Due: Tuesday, April 8
In cultural anthropology we shift focus constantly between examining other cultures and reflecting upon our own; between comparing cultures across the globe and immersing ourselves in one cultural context; between trying to understand the forest while also trying to appreciate the trees. One of the concrete ways we undertake this otherwise prosaic enterprise is to understand society in part through our interactions with individuals. Watching the crowd behave at a concert, sporting event, or religious ceremony gives you one type of insight, and there is great value in that, but speaking with individual people is an absolute necessity in virtually all professional fieldwork projects. Identifying good key respondents, getting them to talk with you, knowing what questions to ask, and being able to organize your data afterwards are all important skills ethnographers need to develop in order to be successful.
Your assignment: Write a 3-4 page paper after you have conducted an in-depth life-history interview with a person of your choosing. Everyone has a story to tell- even if they don't know it. Your job is to find someone's story. What is compelling to YOU might not be compelling to THEM, however. Some folks might not think that being a tin miner for thirty-two years is much of a story, but that would be because they take for granted the nature of the work, the harsh environment in which it is done, and the social relations between the workers and their families that emerge under such circumstances. Indeed, June Nash's excellent ethnography "We Eat the Mines and the Mines Eat Us" is a powerful monograph that was written after conducted many life-history interviews with humble Bolivian tin miners.
Things to keep in mind: EVERYONE has a story but not everyone wants to tell it; some people's stories are painful or shameful to them. Some people's stories are lies. Some stories are only half-written (Charles Darwin's story when he was a young man was about a reluctant adventurer who sailed around the world. As a middle-aged man it had literally evolved into something quite different). Some respondents are better than others- you will have to find a good one, and spend a fair amount of time talking with them- this should take an hour or two at the least. You will have WAY more information you can recount in your paper- you will have to be judicious in your editing and concise in your writing.
Make sure you describe the circumstances of your interview, your relationship to your respondent, how you came to choose them, and any relevant context. You may change the name of the person if you or they desire it. Discuss the interview itself- why you chose to ask what you did, and how you decided which information or story line to pursue. You do not need to convey the persons' actual story, although you might include some interesting details. I'm more interested in hearing your reflections on the interview process rather than the details of the person's life who you have interviewed. Above all be critical and reflective on the interview experience (and by "critical" I don't mean merely "negative.") What are the strengths and weaknesses of your own capabilities as an interviewer? What are the strengths and weaknesses of life history interviews as an ethnographic method? You must answer the question "What did you learn from this experience." This is NOT supposed to be a hastily and vaguely written paragraph tacked on the end as an afterthought, as so often those answers turn out to be. START with that question. That IS the question that is to be the theme of your paper.
Just a suggestion: For fun, you might watch the extremely clever 1970 Dustin Hoffman movie "Little Big Man" (look for it at your library if not netflix) which takes place over the course of a life history interview.
Please refer to the guidelines for writing a paper for me on my course webpage.
