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Course Criteria
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4.00 Credits
not offered 2008-09 The goal of successful ethnographic fieldwork has been summed up by one prominent anthropologist as "to figure out what the devil [societies] think they are up to." But how do anthropologists exactly do this This course, run as a workshop, looks at how cultural anthropologists devise research projects, collect data, and present their findings in ethnographic form. The first two-thirds of the course will be devoted to a hands-on exploration of various ethnographic methods. Students will select a "field site" to practice ethnographic methods with the culmination of their work being a written ethnography about a group of people or cultural phenomena. Methods will include: mapping, linguistic and analysis, analysis of ritual behavior, ethnographic interviewing, and participant observation. During the last one-third of the course we will analyze new and alternative strategies of writing ethnography and the debates surrounding th em. Prerequisi te: Anthropology 102 or consent of instructo
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4.00 Credits
This course is a hands-on workshop in how to conduct ethnographic research and present findings in the genre of ethnographic writing. We will look at how cultural anthropologists and other ethnographers propose research questions and designs and execute ethnographic projects. Readings will combine straightforward discussions of the technical aspects of specific methods with reflections on the ethnographic process drawn from ethnographic writings themselves, fieldwork reflections, and fictionalized accounts of the fieldwork experience. The primary assignment of this course is for students to devise and execute their own ethnographic research project on issues of health, migration, and culture in the highland community of Ca ar, Ecuador. Each week of the course, students will critically study and employ a different method or set of methods (to include, for example, participant observation, direct systematic observations, surveys, qualitative interviews, life histories, kinship analysis, genealogies, and cultural mapping) in their research site. Class time will be divided between short lectures on specific methods, discussion of readings, and a workshop analyzing each student's experiences of using different methods in the field. The final portion of the course will explore approaches and styles for writing ethnography and the debates surrounding them. As a final project, students will be expected to produce a 20- to 25-page ethnographic report of their research. All student projects must be pre-approved by the Whitman College Institutional Review Board. Prerequisites: Acceptance into the Whitman College Ethnographic Field School in Highland Ecuador.
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1.00 - 4.00 Credits
not offered 2008-09 An introductory survey to anthropological thinking about gender and sex beginning with an early disciplinary emphasis on "sex roles" among hunters and gatherers and ending with contemporary research on "gendered identities." Topics will include: nature vs. nurture debates, sex and reproduction, cultural construction of motherhood, third genders, and gender and religion. Organization of the course will follow along the development of different approaches and debates within anthropology, including psychological, structuralist, symbolic, feminist, and Marxist perspectives. Distribution area: social science or alternative voice
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3.00 - 4.00 Credits
An upper-level introduction to the widening field known as science and technology studies (STS). Interdisciplinary in scope, this course primarily draws on ethnographic attempts to understand how science and technology shape human lives and livelihoods and how society and culture, in turn, shape the development of science and technology. Throughout the course we will be particularly concerned with ways that scientific visions and projects, broad in scope, articulate, mirror, distort, and shape hierarchies based on such categories as gender, race, class, development, definitions of citizenship, understandings of nature, the production of knowledge, and global capitalism. Topics may include: race-based pharmaceuticals, climate debates and "natural" disasters, genomics, politicized archaeology, science in postcolonial contexts, DNA fingerprinting, clinical trials, cyborgs, nuclear weapons production, and human/nonhuman relationships. Distribution area: social science.
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1.00 - 4.00 Credits
Staff For advanced students only. The student will undertake readings in depth in an area of theory or content of his own choice. Prerequisite: consent of instructor.
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3.00 Credits
Staff This course is a forum where seniors begin conceptualizing, designing, and carrying out a senior thesis. Emphasis will be placed upon defining research problems and posing questions of inquiry, organizing and utilizing literature reviews, and organizing data sources. Each week one or two individuals will present their thesis proposals in draft form for critique and discussion. In addition to fostering an attitude of cooperation, the goal of the seminar is to help students focus analytically on an anthropology topic and to craft a viable plan of independent research to be executed over both semesters of their senior year.
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1.00 - 3.00 Credits
Staff Senior major students undertake basic bibliographical research in a topical area leading to the writing of a thesis. A thesis outline and research plan, as well as a reading list, will be generated.
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2.00 Credits
Staff Senior major students record in a thesis a substantial original research project based on the previous semester plan and basic bibliography.
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2.00 Credits
Staff Designed to further independent research leading to the preparation of an undergraduate honors thesis in anthropology. Required of and limited to senior honors candidates in anthropology. Prerequisite: admission to honors candidacy.
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1.00 Credits
Projects selected by studio art faculty for the beginning student to work in a group in a specific field or topic. Fee required for book arts ($90), ceramics ($100), painting ($85), photography ($165), printmaking ($115), or sculpture ($125). Prerequisite: consent of instructor.
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