SOSC 1801 Lecture 1: HOW TO READ AN ANTHROPOLOGY ARTICLE
18 Nov 2015
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The anthropological lens teaches us to question what we assume to be unquestionable. -- ivan karp. Anthropologists write in many different styles and for many different audiences. Experimentation in techniques for presenting ideas and representing cultural worlds is valued. You will find that some articles use almost novelistic or autobiographical forms of story-telling, while other articles adopt a more explanatory, observational approach. In general, most articles in anthropology will contain a mix of (1) analytical interventions into debates and/or discussions of concepts, and (2) ethnographic or historical case studies, based on research. Most articles (but not all) will have a structure like this: Introduction: often a vignette, or some other hook to announce the theme: conceptual discussion: situating the analysis to follow in a body of questions, concepts, and existing literature. Some of the articles i have assigned have pretty deep conceptual discussions. If you find these daunting, skim them and hone in on the case study part.
