Waveland Press - Michael V. Angrosino

As a practical bridge between the classroom and the field, this down-to-earth collection offers an impressive range of insightful, focused vignettes about cultural research that will jump-start students’ thinking about the practice of anthropology. Reflecting the contributions of nearly two dozen practicing social scientists, each clearly written chapter covers the fundamentals of different data-collection techniques. Following an overview of a particular ethnographic method, each author describes his or her own research project and shows how that technique is utilized.

Learning-by-doing is the thrust of the current edition. Each chapter ends with suggestions for student projects that promote hands-on exposure to what ethnographers actually do. Readers are given just enough information to appreciate the technique and to practice it for themselves.

“A great book with important lessons. Easy to read and build on in class. Will be adopted.” — Jeffrey Cohen, Ohio State University

“Doing Cultural Anthropology covers basic social science methodology with clarity and appeal. This is an excellent text for teaching anthropological methods to undergraduates.” — Chris Annear, Hobart & William Smith Colleges

“Insightful collection of essays that can provide undergraduates with methodological insights to complete pilot ethnographic projects.” — Lanita Jacobs-Huey, University of Southern California

Introduction (Michael V. Angrosino)
1. Becoming a Participant Observer (Gerry Tierney)
2. Exploring Genealogy (Constance P. deRoche)
3. Conducting a Life History Interview (Michael V. Angrosino)
4. Analyzing Narrative Data (Nancy Redfern-Vance)
5. Reconstructing a Community through Archival Research (Cheryl Rodriguez and Yvette Baber)
6. Using a Museum as a Resource for Ethnographic Research (Serena Nanda)
7. Observing a Workplace (Kathryn Borman, Ellen Puccia, Amy Fox McNulty, and Bill Goddard)
8. Carrying Out a Structured Observation (Laurie J. Price)
9. Designing a Questionnaire for Cross-Cultural Research (Robert D. Baer and Susan C. Weller)
10. Working with Numerical Data (Martha W. Rees)
11. Planning and Moderating Focus Group Research (Carol Bryant)
12. Applying Visual Methods in Ethnographic Research (S. Elizabeth Bird)
13. Constructing a Virtual Ethnography (S. Elizabeth Bird and Jessica Barber)
14. Developing a Electronic Ethnography (Alvin W. Wolfe and Guy Hagen)
15. Composing Autoethnographic Stories (Leigh Berger and Carolyn Ellis)
16. Participating in an Ethnographic Field School (Tim Wallace)