In Practicing Ethnography, the authors offer a well-constructed volume created to guide students of cultural anthropology in developing themselves as ethnographers. The founding proposition is that this book will be used in ethnographic methods classes primarily offered in North American (assumedly Canadian and US) universities. The authors do, however, state that this work can find use among international readers (ix). The focus of the book is on anthropological research conducted in North America, making the examples provided in the book potentially familiar to students, and reinforcing the idea that fieldwork can and should be conducted in places familiar to students.
In addition to an introduction, the book is divided into four thematic parts. Part I: Origins and Basics provides chapters on the history of anthropological fieldwork, participant observation, ethics and political dimensions of fieldwork, and interviewing. Part II: Notes, Data, and Representation focuses on technical aspects of fieldwork including field note creation, data analysis, and writing. Part III: Shifting Field Sites features two chapters on applied anthropology and autoethnography. Finally, Part IV: Visual Aides has chapters on photo-elicitation, ethnographic film, and internet-based fieldwork. The book also features an incredibly helpful glossary, as well as a reference section and an index.
Each chapter features a discussion by the authors of a given topic at hand (for instance, “Participant Observation”), a vignette written by a different anthropologist describing an aspect of their fieldwork pertinent to the given chapter, and a four-part section dedicated to offering potential student assignments, discussion questions, research projects, and further readings. This structure, consistent throughout, allows for instructors to easily adapt this book to a course.
The chapter on “Participant Observation” provides an excellent example of the book’s structure. The authors introduce the topic by defining it and illustrating its basic history in anthropology, leading to its changing dimensions and communities of focus in the present day. They offer a bullet-point list of considerations for students in incorporating participant-observation into their fieldwork. Next, urban anthropologist George Gmelch contributes a vignette on participant-observation with minor league baseball players drawing from his experience as both an anthropologist and a former player. “Making Connections” poses questions that integrate Gmelch’s vignette with the authors’ key points. “Try This” invites students to select a familiar public location for an observation exercise. “Possible Projects” include participant-observation at a sporting event and multi-sited participant-observation centered on a topic common to each site. Finally, “Recommended Readings” include general fieldwork guides, two books by Gmelch (one an ethnography and the other a memoir), and an article on feminist ethnography in Japan.
The section on Visual Aides is also extremely valuable. The interactive spaces offered by photo-elicitation, ethnographic filmmaking, and virtual worlds are aspects of fieldwork that have gained ground over the years, and the ways in which each can represent past, present, and future are extremely important considerations for a fieldworker. While the rapidly-changing world of the internet may require an updated chapter in future editions (the authors use as a key example Second Life, a platform popular in the mid-2000s but steadily declining since then), the chapter has information and ideas that will translate well to future virtual spaces and the fieldworkers who traverse them.
While this book clearly marks cultural anthropology as its discipline of focus, there is nothing about the book that makes it irrelevant for the folklorist. Vignettes illustrate work that could be done (and indeed has been done) by folklorists including a community-based history project for a Native American community in North Dakota in response to land encroachment brought on by fracking, documentation of 9/11 memorial sites at and around Ground Zero in Manhattan, and a quasi-apprenticeship with a musical instrument maker.
Overall, this book is well-written and clear for student and instructor, especially in Canadian and American classrooms. It provides an extremely useful structure for instructors to base courses on while still being loose enough for one to incorporate their own touches. I would recommend it for course adoption or background reading to anyone designing a field methods course for undergraduate or graduate students as well as for anyone who wants to read up on approaches to such work for themselves.
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[Review length: 689 words • Review posted on March 28, 2019]