ANTH326 Peoples and Cultures of Sub-Saharan Africa

Meeting 8, October 29, 2007

Business

• Media Critique (due next Monday)• Journal• Final Examination: Dec. 7, 14:00-17:00, H433• Owusu and Diop Themes (teams)• Identity and Ethnography• Owusu and Diop Discussion• Project Plans

Themes

• Team reporter• Explain themes• Insight on texts• Links with course

Team 1

• Insider/outsider• Language in fieldwork• Using/speaking language• Critical history of anthropology

Team 2

• Ethnographer bias • What can relate to• Fit into structure• Western, foreign• Biases, inaccuracies• Lens/filter

Team 3

• Roles of native/colonial language• Western/native ideologies• Interpreter/informant biases• Histrorical division, ahistorical, static, holistic• Time as underrepresented• Dialogue Native/Western anthropologists

Team 4

• Importance of learning local language• Eurocentric prejudice• Consequences of anthro/ethnography on

local• Framing of ethnography for Western societies

“Identity”

Sameness and Otherness

Social Identity

• Core of social sciences• Insiders/outsiders• Belonging/contrasting• “We-ness” (Schütz) / Distinction(Bourdieu)

“Is African” / “Is Western”

• Origins?• Representative?• Typical?• Traditional?

Nativeness

• Born on site• Indigenous• Territory• Ancestors• Native-speakers• As ethnographers

Otherness in ethnography

• Differences and similarities• Diversity and universality• Constructing wholes• Crisis of representation

“Configuration”

• Fit together• Fluidity• Other possibilities• Appiah at Pop!Tech on “Golden Nugget”

Ethnography

Ethnographic Disciplines

• Ethnology– Cultural anthropology (North America)– Social anthropology (France, UK)

• Folkloristics• Linguistic anthropology• Ethnomusicology• Ethnomethodology (sociology)• Ethnohistory

Ethnographic Methods

• Review of literature• Language learning• Preliminary fieldwork• Extensive field stay– Participant-observation– Open-ended interviews

Insight

• Understand• Grok• “Got it”• Possible predictive value– E.g. Alexis de Tocqueville on America

Cultural Translation

• Implied otherness• Get others to understand• Interpretive anthropology (Geertz)• “Spirit/letter of the culture” (of the law)

Building Models

• Testing models• Empiricism• Forest, not trees• “Two Crows denies it” (Dorsey's disclaimer)• All Grammars Leak (Sapir 1921:39)• Dialogue

Ngolo Diarra Enters the Field

• Ethnomusicology, linguistic anthropology• Interest in “griots”• Bamanan learning• Hunter-musician Madou Diarra• Thesis on proper names• Preliminary field trip (Yoro Sidibe)• Establishing rapport

Readings

Owusu

Language

• Language in fieldwork• Importance of learning local language• Using/speaking language• Roles of native/colonial/trade languages– “Code-Switching”

Insider/outsider

• Western/native ideologies• Dialogue Native/Western anthropologists• Eurocentric prejudice

Critical history of anthropology

• Framing of ethnography for Western societies• Consequences of anthro/ethnography on

local• Time as underrepresented• Historical division– Ahistorical, Static, Holistic (synchronic)

Bias

• Biases, inaccuracies• Interpreter/informant biases• Lens/filter• Ethnographer bias – What can relate to– Western, foreign– Fit into structure

Project Plans

Project Plans

• Focus on improving work• Learning experience• Suggestions, advice–Aim at insight– Connect with course

• Similarities between projects