The Ethnographic Film series continued with Unit 2 – Margaret Mead and Timothy Asch. Unlike for Unit 1 (Robert Flaherty) I didn’t do all readings, only the two mandatory ones. I watched all videos though. I will be the presenter of Unit 5, about Robert Gardner and Forest of Bliss, and will therefore focus on the readings to that unit, while only reading the mandatory ones for the others.
We had a session on grounded theory in Qualitative Methods, and I must say I really, really like it. The introductory readings were not that easy to get through, but I felt excitement at grasping something that was completely new to me, and which makes such perfect sense. This is exactly what I hoped to be able to learn at this programme. “So this is how they do it”, was the feeling. The social scientists, that is. I’m now thinking about how I will be able to use grounded theory in my future research. Next session, in two weeks, will cover coding.
The second unit of Digital Anthropology had lots of introductory readings to the course as a whole, and many of them were really interesting. I especially liked Boellstorff’s notion of “the gap” between virtual and actual, and how it is the gap that defines the virtual as virtual, and thereby also the actual as actual. Without the gap, there is no virtual, but also no actual. The gap is therefore what defines us as human beings. It is essential.
With so many interesting readings, not much in the “Other” category!
Study
Qualitative Methods, Unit 8: Interviewing
Qualitative Methods, Unit 9: Grounded Theory
- Module introduction: Grounded Theory (objectivist and constructivist).
- Willig, C. (2013): Grounded Theory Methodology. Chapter 7 in Introducing Qualitative Research in Psychology, 3 ed., pp. 69-82.
- Charmaz, K. (2000): Grounded Theory. Objectivist and Constructivist Methods. Chapter 19 in N. K. Denzin, Y.S. Lincoln (Ed.): Handbook of Qualitative Research, pp. 509-535.
Ethnographic Film, Unit 3: Dziga Vertov
- Barnouw, Erik (1974): Reporter. In Documentary: A History of the Non-Fiction Film, pp. 51-71.
- Petric, Vlada (1978): Dziga Vertov as Theorist. In Cinema Journal, Vol.18 (1), pp. 29-44.
And the film:
- Dziga Vertov: Man with a Movie Camera (1929, 80 min)
Ethnographic Film, Unit 5: Robert Gardner
- Loizos, Peter (1993): Robert Gardner in Tahiti, or the rejection of realism. In Innovation in Ethnographic Film, pp.139-168.
- Ruby, Jay (2000): Robert Gardner and Anthropological Cinema. in Picturing Culture: Explorations of Film and Anthropology, pp. 95-113.
- Parry, Jonathan P. (1988): Comment on Robert Gardner’s “Forest of Bliss”. In SVA Newsletter.
- Cooper, Thomas W. (1987): Forest of Bliss by Robert Gardner. In Film Quarterly, Vol. 41 (1) (Autumn, 1987), pp. 58-61.
- Mishler, Craig (1985): Narrativity and Metaphor in Ethnographic Film: A Critique of Robert Gardner’s Dead Birds. In American Anthropologist, New Series, Vol. 87 (3) (September 1985), pp. 668-672.
- Östör, Ákos (1988): Misreading the Metaphor: A Comment on Mishler’s “Narrativity and Metaphor”. In American Anthropologist, New Series, Vol. 90 (4) (December 1988), pp. 978-980.
And these films by Robert Gardner (I’m starting to realise what an amazing resource Alexander Street is, which we have access to through our university):
- Forest of Bliss (1986, 90 min) (mandatory)
- Dead Birds (1963, 84 min) (recommended)
- The Nuer (1971, 73 min) (recommended) – by Hilary Harris and George Breidenbach, but Gardner was involved
- Deep Hearts (1980, 50 min) (extra)
Digital Anthropology, Unit 2
- Haraway, Donna J. (1985): A Cyborg Manifesto. In Manifestly Haraway (2016), pp. 3-90 (or 5-68 without the fluff). 😑 (I wish I liked this text more!)
Japanese
- Memrise: 24,200
- 2136 Jōyō Kanji by Grade, still level 16 → 645 of 2136 kanji learned (no progress!)
Other
Articles
- The Economist: Mumbai unions force Uber and Ola into a corner
Podcast
- Alexandre Enkerli: Rapport: The Informal Ethnographer Podcast 2: Ethnography as an Approach
