Designed for use as supplementary instructional material in a cultural anthropology course, this learning module examines concerns that should be addressed when using ethnographic films to explore cross-cultural perspectives. Beginning with a brief discussion of the purpose of ethnographic films, the filmmaker's perspective is discussed, stressing…

One particular death and the rituals, funeral ceremony, and mourning which followed it are used to explore the relationship of the living to death. The particular death described was one which occurred during a year of fieldwork among urban Punjabis. By examining the category of mourners, it was possible to discern a structure within which grief…

Concepts and methods intended to enhance the relationship between psychoanalytic theory and psychological anthropology are proposed and illustrations of the application of these concepts and methods are given based on ethnographic data on the Gusii of Kenya. Using five minimum assumptions about the universality of personality, an ethnographic…

Since many of the concerns motivating research on bilingual education are inherently those of a conflict theory approach, it is not surprising to find increasing dissatisfaction with the traditional quantificational mode of research, as contrasted with the qualitative mode. There is likely to be a close link between research questions, method of…

As part of a study of the cultural and societal factors influencing alcohol use and abuse and variations in drinking patterns among California's Spanish speaking population, ethnographic research was conducted in three separate communities. In this paper, the design and methodology (including participant observation), and some of the results of…

The anthropological field study approach is said to provide a means of breaking through the present conceptual framework that purports to understand complex phenomena by breaking them up into separate variables. (AM)

Writers attempting to describe administration have approached the subject from a number of perspectives. Researchers such as Gulick (1937) identified planning, organizing, staffing, directing, coordinating, reporting, and budgeting as functional elements of administration. Hemphill, Griffiths, and Fredericksen (1962), using simulated job settings,…

This final report presents and discusses a model for an ethnographic study of a K-12 public educational system. To develop the model the author investigated the structure and process of a small, rural educational system. The purpose of the research was the refinement of educational anthropology observation methods and classroom sampling…

The concept of rhetorical community is employed in this paper as a starting point for the study of community. Since the clarity of the concept "rhetorical community" is insufficient for purposes of building theories, the paper offers a more precise conceptual definition: a rhetorical community is a group of people who identify themselves with a…

This training manual for ethnographic research was developed for use in the Student Perceptions and School Behavior Project. The first part of the manual discusses project objectives and methodology. The major goal of the project was to gain an understanding of how adolescents perceived their world--school, home, and community; to analyze the…

A study that examined two speech events, "giving testimony" and "being interviewed," was conducted to test the relevance of the "ethnography of speaking" approach to communication research proposed by Dell H. Hymes. These speech events occur when someone seeks information from another for a formal purpose. The study…

Advocates using folklore to help students build humanities skills and develop global perspectives. Provides an outline of topics and activities which should be an integral part of a folklore study and suggests using the humanities series developed by "Intercom" (see SO 506 865-871) as a curriculum guide. (Author/DB)

Notes that one-semester field methods courses in sociology often lack adequate time for students to learn appropriate techniques and still collect and report their data. Describes how undergraduate students bypass this problem by using multiple observations of a single event to quickly form a corpus of ethnographic data. (JDH)

Describes how sociology students in undergraduate research methods are involved in conducting an annual poll for the university. The emphasis is upon interviewing as a general data-gathering method. Includes information about how useful research problems are determined and the process used to design and implement the poll. (JDH)

Ethnographers have not adequately studied societal determinants of poverty. This article demonstrates the utility of using systems theory to assess interactions between local organizations, national bureaucracies, and corporations. Numerous futile attempts of some the poor and working class Bostonians to halt gentrification show how…