1 / 14

Comparative Ethnographies: A Study of Religion and Change

Comparative Ethnographies: A Study of Religion and Change. Sarah Peters Anthropological Methodology. Comparative Ethnography. Mama Lola: A Vodou Priestess in Brooklyn Karen McCarthy Brown The Afterlife is Where We Come From: The Culture of Infancy in West Africa Alma Gottlieb

marja
Download Presentation

Comparative Ethnographies: A Study of Religion and Change

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. Comparative Ethnographies: A Study of Religion and Change Sarah Peters Anthropological Methodology

  2. Comparative Ethnography • Mama Lola: A Vodou Priestess in Brooklyn • Karen McCarthy Brown • The Afterlife is Where We Come From: The Culture of Infancy in West Africa • Alma Gottlieb • Performing Dreams: Discourse of Immortality Among the Xavante of Central Brazil • Laura R. Graham

  3. Why These Ethnographies? • Symbolic Approach • Religion • Awareness of historical influences

  4. The Ethnographers • Karen McCarthy Brown • Specializes in Haitian and Religious studies • Strong feminist and postmodern theory • Alma Gottlieb • Specializes in West Africa (Beng), Religious, and gender studies • Author of numerous books and articles • Laura Graham • Specalizes in Brazilian, Venezuelan and Colombian studies(Xavante and Wayuu)

  5. Mama Lola: A Vodou Priestess in Brooklyn • Researched the religion of vodou, and its practice in America and Haiti • The life of one woman: Alourdes (Mama Lola) • Active Listening Participant Observation • Unique relationship with informant • Organization of ethnography

  6. The Afterlife is Where We Come From: The Culture of Infancy in West Africa • Explores the Beng belief that babies have recently returned from wrugbe, the afterlife • Compares infant care in Bengland to America • Historical understanding of Beng’s current situation • Participant Observation, formal and informal interviewing

  7. Performing Dreams: Discourses of Immortality Among the Xavante of Central Brazil • Examines and explains the communicative techniques of the Xavante • History, legends, stories, dreams • 10 years of research • Very little discussion of personal reactions– traditional ethnography

  8. What is Significant about them? • These three ethnographies are all significant in a variety of ways • Understudied topics • Vodou • Beng • Infant culture/children • Specific topics • Religion/Communicative techniques

  9. Comparing Their Methodology • These three ethnographies use similar techniques • Active Listening • Participant Observation • interviews • Different questions; different results • Each used methodological techniques suited to the information they were seeking

  10. How Successful Were They? • Success? • Variation on type of information being sought/informants needed • Brown • Graham • Gottlieb

  11. How Does this Apply to Class? • No two (or three) fieldwork experiences are the same • Different ways of approaching symbolic aspects of culture • Different interpretations • Different presentation • From Grahams traditional “objective” ethnography as compared to Brown’s “subjective” and fictional accounts

  12. Conclusion • These three ethnographies utilized the symbolic approach in a variety of ways • Ultimately each was successful with her research and presentation • Inclusion and understanding of the past’s influence on the present and non-isolated societies

  13. Bibliography • Brown, Karen McCarthy 1991 Mama Lola: A Vodou Priestess in Brooklyn. Berkley and Los Angeles: University of California Press • Clifford, James 1990 Notes on (Field)notes, Fieldnotes: the Makings of Anthropology. Ed. Roger Sanjek. Itthica: Cornell University Press • Ford Foundation, 2007 “Religion and Culture, Meeting the Challenge of Pluralism: Karen McCarthy Brown” [internet], Available from <http://religionandpluralism.org/KarenMcCarthyBrown.htm> [accessed May 1, 2011] • Gottlieb, Alma 2004 The Afterlife is Where We Come From: The Culture of Infancy in West Africa. Chicago: University of Chicago Press • Graham, Laura R. 1995 Performing Dreams: Discourse of Immortality Among the Xavante of Central Brazil. Austin: University of Texas Press • Larean, Annette, Shultz, Jeffrey, Krieger, Susan. 1996 “Beyond Subjectivity”, Krieger, Susan, Journeys Through Ethnography: Realistic Accounts of Fielwork. Westview Press: Boulder • University of Illlinois, 2011 “Dr. Alma Gottlieb” [internet], Available from <http://www.anthro.illinois.edu/people/ajgottli> [accessed April 28, 2011] • University of Iowa 2007 “Department of Anthropology: Laura R. Graham” [internet]. Available from <http://www.uiowa.edu/~anthro/graham.shtml> [accessed May 1, 2011] • Wolf, Diane L, Ed 1996 FeministDilemmas in Fieldwork. Boulder, Westview Press, Inc.

  14. Thank you! Any Questions?

More Related