Anthropology in the Global Age
Final Project: Ethnographic book report

Read the ethnography book you have been assigned and write a 8 page book report.

Book:
Adolescent Life and Ethos: An Ethnography of a US High School by Heewon Chang 1992.
Use only this book and not the case studies found on the internet.

Your report should follow the format below:

Introduction: a clear statement of the central theme, focus, issue, or problem the ethnographer investigated.

Methods: describe the location, methods the ethnographer used to collect data (e.g., interview, observation) and the techniques (e.g., statistical, case study) used to analyze the data.

Body of paper:
A. Provide a chapter-by-chapter survey of the contents of the ethnography and evaluate how well it supports the stated goal(s) of the ethnography.
B. Discuss the most important issues of the ethnography and attempt to relate them (whenever possible) to what you have learned from the assigned texts and readings.

Discussion and Conclusion:
A. What is the theoretical perspective of the ethnographer and how does it color his or her analysis of the data?
B. Is the ethnographer convincing, that is, are the methods and data adequate for dealing with the research problems?
C. Does the author attempt to generalize the findings through use of the comparative method?
D. How did the ethnography help you understand more deeply something about your own culture?
E. How did the ethnography reinforce or undermine any of your assumptions about human behavior?

Notes

1. The outline above is meant to be a general outline. For some ethnographies, not all the questions will apply.

*** The book that our class is using that is referenced in BODY OF PAPER item “B” above is
Cultural Anthropology A Problem Based Approach 7th Edition by Richard H Robins and Rachel Dowty if you need to look up the chapter that we studied. I can also provide that if needed.

Category: Essays