The Nature of Ethnography

I took an interesting anthropology class this semester called Field Methods in Ethnography. The goal of the class is to give future anthropologists an insight into how ethnographic research is performed in the field. Talk about an eye-opener. The way the professor has the class structured, there are a few lectures at the beginning of the semester, then the rest of the semester consists of two independent, out-of-class, research projects and presentations. Even though I did not find the class to be “hard,” I can honestly say it's like being thrown to the wolves. I understand now why cultural anthropologists consider fieldwork a trial by fire. I expected to run into problems. My husband took this same class last year, and he had problems too. But it seemed as if everything went wrong for me, and for most of my classmates as well. But it was the struggles that made the ending feel like such a huge accomplishment.

I thoroughly enjoyed this class. And I managed to learn a lot in the process—about qualitative research, about the subculture I chose to study, and about myself in particular. The hardest part was not choosing a subculture, or finding an informant, or even standing up to present my results, like it was for some people in my class. No, the hardest part was, like the professor warned us, showing the informant the final paper. When you do cultural fieldwork, you begin as an outsider looking in. Although the ideal is to eventually understand a culture the way the members perceive it, this ideal is impossible to fully achieve. Then, when you present your research findings, you have to portray yourself as an expert (this is true in any field). By handing a paper over to a member of the group whose culture is examined in the paper, I personally felt like an impostor. The informant knows I am not an expert, yet I have just portrayed myself as such in the paper. On top of that, most ethnographic papers have a somewhat personal slant. Writing of any kind feels like an expression on oneself. So to have to write in a personal tone and then have someone critically read it is very unnerving.

In spite of everything, I came away from this class feeling like I had accomplished something. Which is better than you can say about most classes. I loved being able to choose my own research and come to my own conclusions. If students had more classes like this, we would end up with a much more engaged citizenship. Isn't that supposed to be one of the functions of college to begin with?

Bomb(shell)s Away!

Alright, I’ll admit it. I’m a hopeless romantic. And since I also love to read, I’ll give you one guess what one of my favorite genres is. That’s right, Romance. Yesterday I heard some sad news: my favorite line, the Silhouette Bombshell line, is ending. Now I have to add that this news has been out for a few months, but since I don’t have a lot of reading time, I don’t keep current. I am so upset though that I had to rant about it for a few minutes.

I starting reading romance novels when I was just 8. I’ve always had a love/hate relationship with romance novels. I love them because of the sappy romance. But I hate them because the heroines were always so weak. I hate that the heroines always had to have a man to rescue them or to make them feel satisfied with their life. I always felt this was demeaning and didn’t give women anything to strive for in their lives except to find a man. Why couldn’t the heroines be strong, confident women who rescued their men instead?

With Bombshell I thought I had found a home. These heroines were like nothing you’ve ever read about before. (I like to think that these women were like me!) Now they’re gone. I wonder if I’ll ever be able to read a “regular” romance novel again. I can only hope that the authors of these exceptional books will keep writing books with the same strong characters in the future.

Goodbye Bombshell. You will be missed.

Favorite Bombshell book: Her Kind of Trouble by Evelyn Vaughn
Favorite Bombshell series: The Grailkeepers

I'm Back

As you can see, I went away for a while. But I’m back now. I hope to keep this blog updated a little more often.

My husband did go to Jamaica last summer. He loved it so much he’s going to try to go again this summer! I will give you some pictures later on.

It’s amazing how busy we can get these days with just busyness. The last months have flown by, and I realize I haven’t really lived. The things I love to do, the things I enjoy, are the first to fall by the wayside. Writing is one of those things, yet when I get busy it all seems forced. That’s where I’ve been in the last 6 months—stuck in writing limbo.

The Culture of Technology

I’ve been studying the culture of technology companies the last few days. I’m sitting in St. Louis on business and have nothing better to do than study the people around me. In my years of associating with scientists and engineers I’ve discovered several things.

The biggest epiphany I’ve had is that technology is still a bunch of voodoo, black magic. When problems develop (and they always do), the “experts” do a lot of hand-waving and “tah dah!” it finally works. In the end no one really understands why. There’s no such thing as science as the public understands it. This subject is fascinating to me, and I may expand on it in a later post.

Other things I’ve noticed are the shared stories. For instance, one person brought up the scene in the movie Apollo 13 where the engineers threw the boxes of parts on the table and had to assemble it into something workable. Our conference room today became that kind of a chaotic mess in less than an hour. Every one of us at the table related to that scene, and we had a good laugh. And surprisingly enough, that’s often the way it is, although the stakes aren’t usually so high. You are given a difficult problem with an impossible timeline and limited resources and budget and the bosses expect you to give them results.

An unfortunate part of this technology culture is that it’s still the males’ territory. In a room full of 30 or so men, there was only one other woman working on this particular project, and she’s on a different team. I haven’t noticed it so much in government work, but in the small tech businesses I see it as a big problem. Tech entrepreneurs that I’ve seen tend to be male. I’m not claiming a solution or a reason, just stating an observation. Are women just not interested in the business side of technology?

The style of clothing is also shared. The assumption here is that there is no written dress code, what you see is the unwritten/unspoken dress code. If you know the style, you can tell the status of the person by the way they dress. The rule of thumb is jeans or khakis with a casual dress shirt. Only the vendors or the managers wear slacks or suits. This isn’t the first time I’ve noticed this, I’ve noticed this in government science agencies, like NASA, as well.

Technology companies truly are their own unique subculture. I’ve just scratched to surface with my observations above. Feel free to comment with your own observations on this subject.

Destination: Jamaica!

Ron made a final decision on where he wants to go this summer. He decided on a historical dig that’s beginning this summer in Jamaica. He has already started filling out the application, which is due in two weeks.

I set some conditions for him to go on this trip. The biggest one was that he had to apply for scholarships. If I’m taking everything we have saved and using it to help him out, then the least he can do is to try to help me out by getting his costs reduced. Unfortunately, none of the scholarships are for more than a couple hundred dollars, but it’s a start. So far, we only know of two that he can apply for, and he’s already started filling out one of those. If anyone knows of any open scholarships he could apply for please email me.

We had more good news on the costs too. The university has been waiving a portion of the tuition for study abroad programs in order to get more people interested. Apparently, they have very low participation among students. The tuition break alone will save us a couple of hundred dollars.

Welcome Fellow Adventurers!

You have stumbled onto a great treasure—my personal blog. My name is Lindsay, and this blog will discuss anthropology, archaeology, culture, education, travel, and whatever else I think is relevant. All from an outsider’s perspective of the anthropology world. May you enjoy the journey and learn something along the way.


Please help…

The purpose of this blog is both to increase public understanding of how anthropology connects to everyday life and to raise money to help pay for my husband’s education.

Ron is currently an undergraduate anthropology major. He would like to go to a field school this summer but the cost is atrocious. The cost of the program is $3000, plus tuition of $1030, and the $97 for a passport. The program also recommends having an extra $400 for personal expenses. Total cost is $4500.

If you enjoy this blog and are financial able, I ask that you send a donation through Paypal to armchairanthropologist@gmail.com. Even $1 would be appreciated.