The aim of this project is to give you a chance to experience, on a small scale, what participant observation and ethnographic writing is all about.  Your project will consist of a number of components:

SELECTING A SITE:

You will need to select a public event or place off campus to visit and observe on a one-time basis.  There are a number of preconditions in your selection of a place:  it must be public place in which your presence won’t be intrusive.  It needs to be off campus, and should be a place with which you are unfamiliar… in fact, your should use it as an excuse to visit a site that you wouldn't otherwise visit.  Here are some suggestions:  a church service in a church you’ve never been to - there are an amazing variety of churches in Sherman.  I’d prefer that you visit one that is quite distinct from those you may traditionally attend.  You might want to go to a Spanish-language mass (at St. Mary's on Travis St. at 1:00 pm on Sundays) or Spanish language services at the Methodist or Baptist churches.   Churches that are predominantly African American or White may not be your tradition, and therefore may be of interest to you; many religious denominations may differ from the one you traditionally might have attended.  There is also a Jewish synagogue (in front of the Municipal Building) which meets every other week on Friday evenings, and mosques, Christian Orthodox churches, Hindu and Buddhist temples can be found in the Dallas area, if you want to wander out of Sherman.  There are sports events (not college... high school, the elementary school games, the Latino community has soccer teams), city council meetings, school board meeting, courtroom events (you may need to get information or permission for this first).  Past students have gone to a rodeo, to a gay bar, to the bingo, to a flea market, and to a storefront charismatic church.  I can think of a couple of other ideas:  a school cafeteria (you have to get permission), a community swimming pool (Dennison's is open year around), a bowling alley on tournament night, the Choctaw bingo in Durant, as well as other ideas you mentioned in class.

Spend some time thinking through the selection of a site with another member of the class.  Make sure that schedule makes it possible to carry out the observation.  You also need to consider that some sites will require your getting permission, so you may need to do a bit of preliminary work before you actually go to your site.  In your final report I would like you to describe briefly why you chose this site.  You should spend at least one hour observing the event that you've chosen.

OBSERVING:

How do you go about observing?  This may seem more obvious than it truly is.  There is no foolproof method to teaching observational skills; they come with practice and involve learning to tune one's senses, all of them, to what is going on around oneself.  Our everyday observations aren't a good model for this kind of observation:  they are often interrupted by what we are doing or intending to do (our busyness), and they are also often selective... we pass over a large number of events and details because we don't question them, or because we are simply used to their presence, or because we simply aren't open to the unexpected.  In fieldwork, observation involves consciously turning one's full attention to what is being observed.  It must be as complete as possible, and even when we don't understand exactly what we are seeing, recording those details is important.  Often observation requires that we observe and record details, even when we can't understand them fully; interpretation of what we observe often comes later, sometimes, when we have a broader picture of the context.

But there are some things one can do to increase the effectiveness of our observations.  Let me give you three suggestions:  first, one can make a list of questions that you want to answer through your observations before entering the site.  Let me give you an example:  if you went to a gay bar, your questions might include:  will the mood of this kind of bar be very different from a typical bar?  Will the sexual preference of the patrons be obvious?  How will I know their sexual preference?  Will I see straight people in the bar... will they be out of place?  Will the same kinds of social interactions be taking place as I would normally expect in a straight bar?  What kinds of music and other entertainment will they do?  Will the decorations and arrangement in the bar advertise a sexual preference?  And so on.

A second suggestion is to be open to the unexpected.  Anthropologists have called ethnographic research the "discovery methodology," because the anthropologist is entering into an unknown cultural terrain, and must be open to learning things that she hadn't been prepared for.  In long term fieldwork experiences this often means changing the focus of one's study because of what one discovers as one observes the activities and behaviors of the community one is studying.  For example, you'll note that Bohannan (Smith Bowen) gradually begins to grasp the importance of witchcraft in Tiv society, and consequently begins to turn her attention toward it and away from other issues such as women's roles.  Paying particular attention to those things one hadn't expected, and recording them, can help develop observational skills.

Finally, in participant observation, you must be aware not only of things going on around you, but also of your own reactions to, your own feelings about the place and the experience.  Participant observation is an experiential methodology... we learn about others by experiencing their culture, immersing ourselves in their way of life (this is where the participation part plays a role).  Our experience becomes the filter through which we learn.  Who we are shapes how we observe and what we choose to observe.  Thus, introspective reflection is an absolutely critical aspect of participant observation, because it tells us a great deal about what we are learning, and about how our own identity is shaping our observations.  This is in part why ethnographic fieldnotes are often accompanied by a journal which records the ethnographers experiences.

In this project I would like you to do all three.  With your partner, write up a list of at least 10 questions before you carry out the project.  I would like you to record as well those elements that you hadn't expected.  And finally, while making your observations, pay attention to your response to the context.  These should all be incorporated into your final report.

RECORDING:

Take notes unobtrusively about what occurs and what is said in that setting.  I often use a small pocket notebook or three by five cards because I can put them away when not taking notes.  This first step of note taking can be minimal... just entries, or outline form... so that it isn't noticeable to others, and so it doesn't take up too much of your attention.  You want particularly to record important details that you would otherwise forget.  As mentioned above, use all your senses (sight, sound, perhaps taste or feel, smell [in some cases] and other perceptions) to take in information.  Notice not only what takes place “on the stage” (the center of activity), but what other participants are doing as well.  Notice the setting, the different kinds of persons present, symbols that used or are present that are used to identify the group or event.  You might ask yourself what kinds of people are present, what ties (family, religious beliefs, etc.) make them a social group, what kinds of divisions are noticeable (teacher/student, clergy/laity, judge/lawyers/defendant), what role each plays, and other social characteristics of the group.  You might also ask what the physical layout of the event reveals about the social characteristics of the group.  Notice also your own feelings as you observe... what are your reactions to what you are seeing, what do you think makes you feel that way?  You want to make sure you take in as much detail as possible.

A suggestion with regard to note taking.  When I do fieldwork, I often divide my notes into two columns; one column I use to jot down actual observations about what is going on around me.  The other column I use to jot down my responses to those observations:  my reactions to certain things, questions that pop into my head while I'm observing, my reflections on what is going on around me.

Finally, I would like you to talk to (interview) at least one participant at the site you are visiting.  Your questions should be directed toward getting an insider's perspective of what you have observed.  You will want to incorporate this small interview into your final writeup.

WRITING UP:

Your final product is a set of fieldnotes that you and your partner will write up together.  They should be written in a narrative form, with a focus on events as they unfolded and on significant details.  Your fieldnotes should be prose, with considerable care spent in the writing.  The ultimate aim of these notes is to capture, through the narrative, a sense of being in the event.  The reader should feel as though she/he were there.  Care to accuracy and detail are important, but they need to be placed in the larger context of the event.  You might also make note of questions that the experience left in you.

I expect that your fieldnotes will be approximately 8-10 pages (doublespaced) in length.  I will evaluate the project on the basis of the rigor and care in the experience itself, attention to detail and to the components of the observation, and the care with which the narrative itself is written up.  The project will be due on Friday, Nov. 30.