课程详述

COURSE SPECIFICATION

以下课程信息可能根据实际授课需要或在课程检讨之后产生变动。如对课程有任何疑问，请

联系授课教师。

The course information as follows may be subject to change, either during the session because of unforeseen

circumstances, or following review of the course at the end of the session. Queries about the course should be directed to the

course instructor.

课程名称 Course Title

解读民族志 Reading Ethnography

授课院系

Originating Department

社会科学中心 Center for Social Sciences

课程编号

Course Code

SS139

课程学分 Credit Value

课程类别

Course Type

通识选修课程 General Education (GE) Elective Courses

授课学期

Semester

2021-2022 学年第三学期（夏季）2021-2022 Summer Semester

授课语言

Teaching Language

英文 English

授课教师、所属学系、联系方

式（如属团队授课，请列明其

他授课教师）

Instructor(s), Affiliation&

Contact

（For team teaching, please list

allinstructors）

陈娟青年会士 Juan Chen, Junior Fellow

南方科技大学人文社会科学荣誉学会 Society of Fellows in the Liberal Arts, SUSTech

e-mail：chenj@mail.sustech.edu.cn

实验员/助教、所属学系、联系

方式

Tutor/TA(s), Contact

无 NA

10.

选课人数限额(可不填)

Maximum Enrolment

（Optional）

11.

授课方式

Delivery Method

讲授

Lectures

习题/辅导/讨论

Tutorials

实验/实习

Lab/Practical

其它(请具体注明)

Other（Pleasespecify）

总学时

Total

学时数

Credit Hours

12.

先修课程、其它学习要求

Pre-requisites or Other

Academic Requirements

无 NA

13.

后续课程、其它学习规划

Courses for which this

course is a pre-requisite

无 NA

14.

其它要求修读本课程的学系

Cross-listing Dept.

无 NA

教学大纲及教学日历 SYLLABUS

15.

教学目标 Course Objectives

Specifically, this course aims to help the students:

 Understand different ways of reading an ethnography (a.k.a. critical reading) and critique the writing of

anthropologists

 Understand ways of identifying and analysing the core ideas in order to apply these ideas to other areas of

study.

 Understand different ways of reading ethnographies anthropologically and developing an anthropological

imagination of their own.

16.

预达学习成果 Learning Outcomes

Upon completion of this course, students are expected to

 Understand the connection between anthropology as a discipline and ethnography

 Understand the use of method and theory in ethnography

 Understand different ways of exploring methodological and theoretical debates in ethnography

17.

课程内容及教学日历（如授课语言以英文为主，则课程内容介绍可以用英文；如团队教学或模块教学，教学日历须注明

主讲人）

Course Contents (in Parts/Chapters/Sections/Weeks. Please notify name of instructor for course section(s), if

this is a team teaching or module course.)

Week 1: Introduction to Reading Ethnography (2-credit hours)

 Self-introduction

 Course introduction: the syllabus

 The concerns and distinctiveness of ethnography

 Shaping ethnography

Week 2: Comparison and the ethnographic outlook (2-credit hours)

 Identifying comparison

 Roles and aims of comparison

 Comparison and the creation of ethnographic concepts

 Activities

Week 3: Activities, Individual Presentation and Group Discussion (2-credit hours)

 Give examples of how the author uses explicit comparison to establish an argument.

 Can you distinguish implicit comparisons of the kind discussed in this chapter? 󳮁

 How does the author connect the broader conceptual discussion at the beginning of her argument with her

specific ethnography? 󳮁

 What similarities and differences might we draw between the comparative approach taken here and that taken

by the author in the example discussed in the chapter above?

 By way of the comparisons she has made, what new concept is the author introducing to anthropological

conversations?

Week 4: People in context (2-credit hours)

 Differentiation as the basis for interpretation and explanation

 Individuals and groups – levels of integration in the ethnographic life world

 Diversity versus integration

Week 5: Activities, Individual Presentation and Group Discussion (2-credit hours)

 What is an important institution for understanding gender relations in the ethnography and why?

 How does a sense of the context as a whole emerge from the detail the author presents in the text? 󳮁

 What part does the demonstration of diversity play in the author’s argument? 󳮁

 What kinds of different roles and forms of agency does the author highlight through the voices she presents?󳮁

 Can you see elements of a ‘hermeneutic circle’ at work in the author’s account? Pick out some examples. 󳮁

Week 6: Relationships and meanings (2-credit hours)

 How ethnographers write about relationships

 Building the picture of relationships according to key metaphors

 Abstracting relational pattern as a basis for comparison

 The difference between the ethnographer’s analysis and reality

Week 7: Activities, Individual Presentation and Group Discussion (2-credit hours)

 Give an example of the distinct ideas, images and metaphors orienting the way people think about male and

female relationships in the author’s account. 󳮁

 Which kinds of relationship count? 󳮁

 Explore processes of ethnographic scene-setting in the author’s article, as opposed to processes of

simplification and abstraction. 󳮁

 How does a study of relationships shed light on the issues that the author raises in the final paragraph? 󳮁

Week 8: Narrating the immediate (2-credit hours)

 Narrating the immediate

 Transience and recurrence

 Narratives of the immediate and the construction of anthropological arguments

Week 9: Activities, Individual Presentation and Group Discussion (2-credit hours)

 What are the key stylistic devices that the writer uses to give the reader a feel for the quality of life in that

society?󳮁

 At what points does the author use the ethnographic present and at what points does he use the past tense,

and what does he achieve with each style of narration? 󳮁

 What similarities and differences might we draw between the narrative style of Lévi-Strauss and those of

Benedict and Abu-Lughod in the chapter above? 󳮁

 Give examples of the way the author interweaves narrative of the immediate and theoretical argument. 󳮁

 Summarise the author’ conclusions, and evaluate whether they are adequately supported by the ethnographic

material he provides. 󳮁

Week 10: Ethnography as argument (2-credit hours)

 The tension between ethnographic argument and ethnographic experience

 The co-shaping of evidence and argument

 Ethnographic arguments are relational

Week 11: Activities, Individual Presentation and Group Discussion (2-credit hours)

 What features does the author highlight in the text? 󳮁

 What is the contribution of the author’s book? What criticisms does the author make of his argument? 󳮁

 What kind of theoretical approach is the author arguing against in his introductory note? 󳮁

 How does the author go about positioning his own argument vis-à-vis those of his contemporaries? 󳮁

 What overall purpose does this 1964 note on a book published in 1954 serve? 󳮁

Week 12: The setting and the audience (2-credit hours)

 Writers and informants

 Anthropological readers and intellectual trends

 Feminist anthropology: writers of ethnography as social actors

Week 13: Activities, Individual Presentation and Group Discussion (2-credit hours)

 Who are the author’s interlocutors in this piece? How does she position herself in relation to them? 󳮁

 What roles do the author’s informants play in the excerpt? In what ways do they participate in the community of

conversationalists that the author constructs in her article? 󳮁

 What intellectual trends is the author engaging? How is this engagement made visible in the excerpt? 󳮁

 In what ways are the concerns of feminism as a political movement made evident in the piece? 󳮁

 What concept does the author introduce to the conversation between feminism and anthropology? How does

she deploy this concept and to what purposes? 󳮁

Week 14: Positioning the author (2-credit hours)

 The agency of the author

 Stories of fieldwork

 Claims and the construction of authorial voices

Week 15: Activities, Individual Presentation and Group Discussion (2-credit hours)

 What voices are made present in this chapter? How do they relate to each other? 󳮁

 In what ways does the author assert his authorial agency? Find relevant quotations. 󳮁

 In what ways does the author hide or disclaim his authorial agency? Find relevant quotations. 󳮁

 The author does not give us a narrative of entry into the field, but he does use narratives of the immediate

extensively. What roles do these narratives play in enabling the author to construct a distinctive authorial

position for himself? 󳮁

 How does the author deploy the categories knowledge/ignorance and insider/outsider?

Week 16: Big conversations and patterns of commitment (2-credit hours)

 The ‘ethnographer up’ viewpoint

 The critical thinker and the making of meta-narrative

 Signalling intellectual allegiance

 The text as the weave of academic personality

 Ethnography in the human conversation: a final remark

 Ethnography as fact

 Ethnographic knowledge as provocation

 Ethnography’s liberating role

18.

教材及其它参考资料 Textbook and Supplementary Readings

The course instructor will provide supplementary readings before each session of the lectures.

课程评估 ASSESSMENT

19.

评估形式

Type of

Assessment

评估时间

Time

占考试总成绩百分比

% of final

score

违纪处罚

Penalty

备注

Notes

出勤 Attendance

25%

课堂表现

Class

Performance

小测验

Quiz

课程项目 Projects

平时作业

Assignments

75%

(10%) 10-15 minutes presentation:

Students will give 10-minutes

presentations on the contents of

their essays, followed by Q&A.

(65% Essay) Students will submit

one essay during the term,

answering to one of the proposed

questions. Each essay will contain

no less than 2000 words and no

more than 3000 words (English or

Chinese).

期中考试

Mid-Term Test

期末考试

Final Exam

期末报告

Final

Presentation

其它（可根据需要

改写以上评估方

式）

Others (The

above may be

modified as

necessary)

20.

记分方式 GRADING SYSTEM



A. 十三级等级制 Letter Grading



B. 二级记分制（通过/不通过） Pass/Fail Grading

课程审批 REVIEW AND APPROVAL

21.

本课程设置已经过以下责任人/委员会审议通过

This Course has been approved by the following person or committee of authority