This text was produced by Grace Awantang while the person was a student at Macalester. It was distributed for in-class review. Any use of this text necessitates you to contact the person directly for copyright purposes.
Category: anthropology
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[Grace Awantang] Influences of Structuralism
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[Eric Olson] Opaque Fecundity: Theories of Lévi-Strauss
This text was produced by Eric Olson while the person was a student at Macalester. It was distributed for in-class review. Any use of this text necessitates you to contact the person directly for copyright purposes.
From:¨Eric Olson
Sent: Tuesday, November 02, 2004 8:03 PM
Subject: here’s my crib sheet!
please read this first (after you have voted)foreward: The title of this work is ironically appropriate: LS wanted to make things as simple as possible under his phrame of reference yet to our perpetual misfortune, it ends up being exactly not that. Please, enjoy.
e
ps, someone write me back saying you got it
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[Rachael Harlos] Cultural Ecology and Materialism: Harris, Steward, and Bourgois
This text was produced by Rachael Harlos while the person was a student at Macalester. It was distributed for in-class review. Any use of this text necessitates you to contact the person directly for copyright purposes.
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Interview 3: October 22
October 29, 2004
Interview 3: October 22
Ethnographic Interviewing
Yongho KimY: I was trying to get all the poeple you had mentioned into some sort of taxonomy.
D: one taxonomy?
Y: but maybe, maybe just get a little vendor..
D: I mean, you can make, can make a taxonomy of vendors. (uhu) I can partly do that. Okay.. [sigh] Ah.. okay… there’s this.. something you could do is [sigh] these are kinds of members. There’s also the question, these, these people hold positions. They are not officers. At least I don’t think they are called officers. I would tend to move this one.. let’s get rid of these guys.. you use a word like regular.. regular members down there. Uh, and then just move the whole thing up this line. So, these are kinds of members but they do have specific designations – ride captains, COYs,
Y: I was just thinking that.. these should be on the second level because there are district editors, and there’s district COYs, and there’s the national
D: okay we have to.. [laugh] if, if we start doing the district, then you’re gonna have a whole another list. So that’s why you need to define what you have. Kinds of… I would say kinds of chapter members, or something like that. In other words, you are.. you can make it so big that you can’t imagine it. You can have other kinds of COYs, yeah, there are chapter COYs, district COYs, region COYs and the national COY. It used what they be. There are also ambassadors.. [laugh] forgot ambassadors. (oh ok) but they don’t occur at this level. you have district embassadors.. you have also..
Y: that’s why I was thinkin of the levels would be more like.. attributes of these people
D: yeah. if you cut it off in chapter, what you are saying is “I am adding an attribute to cut it down to one area” ok, and that’s what you would be doing. (I see) The.. and that’s what you should do. Because otherwise it will just get too.. you won’t be doing one thing at a time. There are.. I just wrote them down. [on the taxonomy] there are senior directors, [silence] see, uh, C.D. or Chapter directors are really the term for that, chapter director, and chapter.. I’ll just write them down dhapter director, you won’t get an assistant to that, nor any of these yo know.. you don’t get any of those there but you get your chapter directors. I don’t think there are any ambassadors at this level. So that’s just to add one thing. Uh, you know there are other kinds of officers. So senior, senior we just go right in – I’ll put him in here.Y: Maybe we could put in.. like what they are doing at the chapter level and what offices there are.. D: Okay this is chapter level. (uhuh) [marks chapter] Okay,..district (you coudl just tell me I could record it) ok, the district would be you can have a district director, a DD, [laugh] that’s an alternate way of saying it. I put a District Director and put DD in parenthesis. Just an alternate way of referring to the same thing. Okay, there’s a district director, there can be a senior district director. There’s a district trainer, and there can be a senior district trainer. There is a.. district educator, and there can be a senior district educator. There is a district COY, and i’m not sure if I’m dealing with officers now.. there normally, this is called the “state staff” [giggle] that’s what it’s called (state staff). yeah. and uhh, you know talk.. I don’t know if I’d use the term officers there or not, that’s a good question. But the “state” staff” is a way you would list that. There is a.. God, can’t do it all. Umm… a district editor (uhuh,) there is… any other formal officers.. the trainer, educator, uh there can be a district embassador.. okay.
Y: Is the district director the only person who has some alternate name?
D: Usually because you start getting into assistant district director, did I give you that? (No) I’m not sure if we have an assistant district educator.. district educator.. we might. I bet it’s possible to have one, so I’m just gonna give you what’s possible. Alright. You have a senior district director, you don’t have a district director too. But those are two offices and one.
Y: so.. if you have two a district director you don’t have a senior district director (no) you have either one
D: But that’s the other attribute of these terms. That’s the other term. If you say “what could you have”, these are what you could have. (I see, I see) Okay.. so it might be that all of them.. embassadors.. but all of hte other ones possibly might have an embassador. Just trying to think of anything else.. what are the reasons.. well, that’s an attribute. One of the reasons you have is so that you can move up in the position, but.. ok. Umm.. there is something called “the journal staff” [laugh] but that’s not under the state staff. (uhuh) and on that the journal stuff is the editor, the assistant editor, the area editor, – there are several – so it should be “Area editors”. Umm.. the.. advertising coordinator (uhuh) the uh… membership coordinator, let’s see anybody else..[silence] that’s all.. oh the, did I give you an assistant editor and yes I did.. (assistant editor) yeah, I don’t have one. (oh you don’t have one?) no, no, I just don’t have an office for it. Kind of reminds of cultures, where there are officers but there aren’t necessarily people. [in it] There can be people, and some of them holds, if, if, you know, someone were to assasinate the president of the united states, the office is still there, but nobody is holding it for a minute, until the vicepresident was sworn in. So, these are offices, these are positions, and often it is hard for students to get the idea that individuals are that. Well, there is a senior district director, but there isn’t an “office” called that, too. And when there is no one filling it, it’s still an office and we still know that it exists. They just invented that one about five years ago. Cuz uhm.. people were staying on and they needed a way to to put a term to it, so if they did it over the 2year term they were seniors. (oh, ok) those are attributes. Those are attributes.
Y: Umm, so could you tell me about the chapter level? WHat officers would there be? (Oh I did) oh, that was about the district lelvel?
D: I just did the district level (uhuh) ok? umm I can’t do the district.. I am not sure about the region and the national. There are some offices I don’t know. (Oh, what you read here is the chapter) that’s the chapter. Oh, ok. Could you tell me about.. what these chapter officers -
Assignment 2: Project Proposal
Yongho Kim
Assignment 2: Project Proposal
September 21, 2004
Ethnographic Interviewing1. “Altazor Arts Collective”, and as a second possibility, “Roots Theatre”
2. Altazor is Latin American, English-speaking, radical theatre group based in a major latino neighborhood in the Twin Cities. I am thinking of Peter, a recent Macalester employee, who upon finishing contract at the Spanish Department has started working with this theatre group. He is an actor and assistant director, and has four years of involvement with the theatre (he was involved in the group before leaving Macalester, and is full-time as of two years now, I believe)
Roots is a chicano political theatre group based in another latino neighborhood in the Twin Cities. I do not have contacts there, but my current employer has contact with the director of the theatre, Leonardo.
3. Advantage: these groups are continuously in need to “get the word out” about themselves, so they would be happy to talk about themselves, even if it was anonymously. Another is that this is a specialized field of work, so that it will both have an explicit culture and a rich jargon.
4. I am not sure if anyone in the group is involved only putting a few hours a week in the project, or if they spend time only for upcoming projects, or what. If any of these is true, then the research may have considerable hardship actually getting the interviews done.
5. Research with Human Participants Statement
a. Risks: very unlikely, but the group may have undocumented immigrants performing (as part of their “political statement”). People involved may not have enough time, especially as they approach a new performance. People may try talking to me in Spanish (quite a few of them know that I work for Centro, a latino labor center).
b. I will try to interview someone investing considerable amount of time, such as directors. I will also ask frankly if there are undocumented workers performing, and explain them that my interview transcripts could become, in a worst case scenario, target of court subpoena; and that therefore it is in the best interest of both that I engage in research in environments where no illegal activity (regardless of whether or not it is criminal) may occur. I will also make sure that my informant is comfortable talking in English.
c. To secure anonymity, the interviews will be stored in tape cassettes which I will keep in a bag with a lock in my room. (I am not sure as to what to do with the keys of the lock, though) I will transcribe the interviews into files that will be saved in my computer with a running password-protected file server system to access them from around the campus. Whenever I draft a transcript, I will shred it using proper machines at the Anthro dept before disposing of it. I will be using pseudonyms throughout the transcription of the interviews. I will write down critical number data in codes, so I’ll worry less about things such as addresses and phone numbers leaking out.
d. I will call their office, and try to set up an appointment (I work fairly close to their office). Depending on the outcome I will meet them or set up a phone introduction to explain briefly the project to him or her and request to talk with someone who would be willing to put the time. When talking with the director or actor, I’ll introduce myself as a Macalester student taking an anthropology class in which we are to learn interviewing techniques while trying to learn the interviewed’s perspective as much as possible. I’ll also say that I have a curiosity as for how the task of distributing the work is organized. I’ll explain him that this will involve a series of 7 or 8 interviews over a period of 10 weeks lasting 45 to 60 minutes, resulting in a 30 page academic paper describing his work from a neutral position that will be read only by my professor and me, for which I will receive a grade. I’ll also say that I’ll be happy to give him copies of the final paper. I will have to use a recorder in order to take good note of what my informant may have to say, but that will preserving a strict anonimity with the use of pseudonyms, careful handling of the data, and avoidance of information that narrows the site or person down. I believe this should give my informant enough information to decide whether or not to partake in the project. -
[Katie Iverson] E. E. Evans-Pritchard
This text was produced by Katie Iverson while the person was a student at Macalester. It was distributed for in-class review. Any use of this text necessitates you to contact the person directly for copyright purposes.