LIFE
HISTORY RESEARCH IN ANTHROPOLOGY
Anthropology
693
Spring 2004
– Th 6-9pm
David Koester
Eielson 312c
Syllabus
WEEK 1
-January 15
Introduction
WEEK 2
-January 22 Guest
Lecturer: Bill Schneider –
Introduction to life history based on oral history
WEEK 3 -
January 29
Pruitt, Ida
and Ning Lao T'ai-t'ai
1945 A Daughter of Han: The Autobiography of a Chinese Working
Woman. Stanford: Stanford
University Press.
WEEK 4 -
February 5
Dilthey,
Wilhelm
1976 Drafts for a critique of
historical reason. In Selected Writings. Rickman, H. P., ed. pp. 207-245. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Dollard, John
1935 Criteria for the Life
History. New Haven: Yale
University Press. pp.1-36.
Niedermüller,
Peter
1988 From the Stories of Life to
the Life History: Historic
Context, Social Processes and the Biographical Method. In Life History as
Cultural Construction/Performance.
Tamás Hofer and Peter Niedermüller, eds. Pp.451-473. Budapest: Ethnographic Institute,
Hungarian Academy of Sciences.
WEEK 5 -
February 12
Crapanzano,
Vincent
1980 Tuhami. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
WEEK 6 -
February 19
Linderman,
Frank B.
1972 Pretty-Shield: Medicine Woman of the Crows. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press.
Kirshenblatt-Gimblett,
Barbara
1988 Authoring Lives. In Life History as
Cultural Construction/Performance.
Tamás Hofer and P. Niedermüller, eds. Pp.133-178.
WEEK 7 -
February 26
Research
Ethics and the Human Subjects Research Review Process
Glazer, Myron
1982 The Threat of the
Stranger: Vulnerability,
Reciprocity, and Fieldwork. In The Ethics of Social Research: Fieldwork, Regulation, and Publication.
J. E. Sieber, ed. pp. 49-70. New York: Springer-Verlag.
Wax, Murray
L.
1982 Research Reciprocity Rather
than Informed Consent in Fieldwork. In The Ethics of Social
Research: Fieldwork, Regulation,
and Publication. J. E. Sieber, ed. pp. 33-48. New York: Springer-Verlag.
Appell,
George N.
1988 Ethical dilemmas in
anthropological inquiry: a case
book. Waltham: Crossroads Press. (assigned selections)
Cassell, Joan
1982 Harms, Benefits, Wrongs, and
Rights in Fieldwork. In The Ethics of Social Research: Fieldwork, Regulation, and Publication.
J. E. Sieber, ed. pp. 7-31. New York: Springer-Verlag.
WEEK 8 -March
4
Soyinka, Wole
1981 Aké, the Years of
Childhood. New York: Vintage.
Fabre, Daniel
1996 The Way of Birds: Biographical Accounts of the Maturation
Process. In Imagined Childhoods. pp. 91-118.
MID-TERM
PROJECTS DUE: MARCH 11
WEEK 9 -March
11
Lukashkina,
Tatiana Petrovna
Unpublished
text in progress; posted on ERes.
WEEK 10
-March 25
Discussion of
interviews and techniques for transcription.
Brown, Karen
McCarthy
1991 Mama Lola: A Vodou Priestess in Brooklyn. Berkeley: University of California Press
WEEK 11 - April
1
Cruikshank,
Julie
1990 Life Lived Like a Story. Lincoln: University of Nebraska
Press.
Luborsky,
Mark R.
1987 Analysis of Multiple Life
History Narratives. Ethos
15(4):366-81.
WEEK 12 -
April 8
Computer
techniques for textual analysis, Lecture and Discussion.
WEEK 13
– April 15
WEEKS 13-14 -
April 22-29
Student
presentations and discussion of analyses.
REQUIREMENTS: participation in class discussion,
in-class presentation, mid-term, final paper
MID-TERM
PROJECT (20% of grade): Research project
proposal for human subjects committee review
FINAL PAPERS
(80% of grade): life history
transcription plus analysis
Starting
in approximately Week 7 you should begin work on collecting a life
history. Part of your assignment
will be to read about the cultural, social, historical and political background
of your subject. Class meetings
beginning Week 10 will involve discussion of interviewing, use of equipment,
transcription procedures, and analysis.
Basic "macro" programming techniques for computer-based text
analysis will be covered during weeks 11 and 12. You will be expected to make a short presentation about the
life history that you are collecting.