Ethnographic Notebook Assignment I am asking you to keep an ethnographic notebook--a series of writings, musings, responses, and whatever else comes to mind relating to the ethnographic films we watch each week. Beginning from Week Two, choose any ten of the twelve films we will watch (you may not write on Babakiueria from Week One). You will be turning the observations you make (think of them as your raw material) into a set of short, polished reflections--ten in all, each about a single page of 500 words or so--to be handed in at the end of the term. Youll recall from your reading of the textbook that anthropology is field-based, and that ethnography is rooted in a cultural anthropologists lived experience with a specific group of people and their way of life over a period of time, ideally at least a year. While in the field, we take notes regarding the details of everyday life. These field notes range from brief jottings while in a field situation about which more complete notes will be written later to longer descriptions of everything we can remember about an occasion, from the larger things we are learning about how culture works in our field site to reflections of a more personal nature on what it was like doing the research. Eventually, these field notes will become the major source of data on which we base our ethnographic conclusions. Given the constraints of the semester, we will be going to the field via ethnographic films. Consider yourself an anthropologist engaging in ethnographic research. Watch the films actively and with paper and pencil handy. Youll find that keeping an ethnographic notebook gives you a chance to think and write about what the films mean to you. It helps you develop your thoughts and your powers of expression. It helps you grow as an anthropologist--raising questions you might not otherwise think about and stimulating observations you might not otherwise make. Besides, it also helps with preparing for essays and exams In each of the ten reflections, Id like you to show some grasp of the film, whether in larger concepts or smaller details, and provide a point of view that reflects your own thoughts on it. Consider you are trying to turn a mix of facts, ideas, and opinions into a more or less coherent statement. Don\'t ramble on but keep your focus on the film, using personal experiences if you can make them relevant. At a minimum, you must note its subject (what the film was literally about) and its theme (the lesson you learned about anthropology after watching it). You might make connections to ideas arising from the weeks reading, other ethnographic films, class discussions, problems you are having with what youre writing or what we\'re reading, etc. By the end of the course, your notebook entries will be a series of snapshots of what you have been thinking and learning along the way. The notebook is worth 30% of your final grade. You are graded on effort, clarity, and originality. You can make your writing informal but clear. If you like, its perfectly fine to write in the first person (I think rather than the author of this journal thinks), to use contractions, and to use images to describe your ideas. Here are some terms (both good and not so good) that I think about when I am reading your notebook entries:

• thoughtful, far-reaching; well-supported, well-reasoned; clear and direct writing; lively, individual, clever; gutsy, courageous, stirring; sharp particulars and concrete specifics that frame and/or anchor ideas
• vague, generalized, superficial; careless, casual, lacking; thin, bare, flat, thoughtless

Any hint of plagiarism, including copying the work of another student (current or former), will be prosecuted.

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