ANTHRO 1610 - Ethnographic Research Methods

Prof. Ping-hsiu Alice Lin
Th 12:00 PM - 2:45 PM
 

Anthropology is defined by its unique approach to the study of human subjects through what we call “ethnographic methods.” This course, required for undergraduate anthropology concentrators at Harvard, will use the genre of ethnography (texts—written, visual, etc—produced by anthropologists) to discover how anthropologists have approached various social phenomena throughout the history of the discipline. In doing so, we grapple with the legacy of anthropology’s colonial past to understand questions of power and knowledge production in social anthropological thought. The texts chosen for this course both give insight into the history of the discipline and the wide variety of human (and non-human) existence that anthropologists have written about, with particular attention to pressing ethical questions in contemporary debates in social anthropology. Additionally, the texts chosen represent a variety of writing styles, theoretical approaches, and worldviews that introduce you to the exciting breadth of this ambitious discipline, which strives to give a holistic analysis of what it means to be human. The course consists of one lecture/seminar meeting a week plus a required section with a Teaching Fellow.

Open to undergraduates only.