Week 3 Activity

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School

Wilfrid Laurier University *

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Course

100

Subject

Anthropology

Date

Dec 6, 2023

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pdf

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Uploaded by UltraTitaniumHawk13

Fieldwork & Representation – Activities Worksheet Below you will find all the lesson activities from Module 3: Fieldwork & Representation that require a written answer. Any activities that are formatted as a quiz or reflection activities are not included in this worksheet but are equally important. This word document will provide you a space to work through each of these activities. These activities are not meant to replace the content found in your textbook, the additional readings, videos, or in the modules associated with this week. Instead, their purpose is to provide you with a deeper understanding of the course content.

Learning Activity 1 Put yourself in the shoes of someone who has just stepped into Toronto’s Pearson Airport for the first time. They are arriving in Toronto in early October and the weather is about to change. School began almost four weeks ago and Ontarians are about to celebrate the Thanksgiving long weekend. In 250 words (plus minus 10% so 225- 275, I won’t read above 275 words ) , create a snap-shot - a narrative-style story(s) (a first person story)- of what you think life might be like for a new family of 6 coming to live in Toronto, Ontario. When doing this exercise, think about the following questions: • What differences might they encounter in terms of language, living habits, climate, sounds, sights, tastes, cultural attributes, etc. • What might create an embarrassing or awkward situation? • What societal factors might the family have to contend with in the first few weeks, for example, when might Ali begin school? How might they be affected by the long weekend? As you are reflecting on and answering these questions, you may want to draw on experiences or situations that you have encountered in the past. Trying to understand someone else’s life experiences, to ‘walk a mile in their shoes’ are some of the tools that anthropologists use as a means to explore and learn about culture, and it is what we explore next. On October 2 nd , a plane full of passengers arriving from Jordan landed at Toronto Pearson. A family of 6 who left their country to start a new life elsewhere. As a family coming from a place that is entirely opposite to where they are now, everything felt surreal. As they stepped outside of the airport, they instantly distinguished the difference in places; things like air quality, temperature, and environment were some of the things they noticed in their few seconds of being in Canada. The family will have many challenges to overcome while trying to transition to a Canadian lifestyle. The hardest being the language barrier as in Jordan they predominantly speak Arabic while Canada’s main languages are English and French. Also, since school started in September the kids in the family will need to enroll in school as early as possible because it will help them slowly transition and learn how to live in Canada. One thing that might be a challenge for the kids is the bullying or harassment they could endure while in school, as they are immigrants and don’t speak the language at all. Another big factor is the fact that thanksgiving is on the horizon and will be a big moment for the family of 6. This is because this will be the point where they decide to continue with the traditions they have been practicing in Jordan or attempt to adjust to Canadian life and celebrate Thanksgiving. Overall, it will be a challenging time for the family, but they will have to choose what will be best for them.

Learning Activity 2 Who is this? Based your answer on the textbook. Respond in up to 50 words (without bibliography). Demonstrate familiarity with the textbook. Provide a citation (follow Chicago Citation Style- refer yourself to MyLS post on this topic). The photo above shows a man by the name of Bronislaw Malinowski, who was an anthropologist. He was different from other anthropologists as he was one of the first to “abandon the armchair approach” ( Robbins, 2020). He did this by making fieldwork a priority and saw the effectiveness of this method. According to your textbook, recall three factors that made this researcher different from other researchers who conducted fieldwork. Respond in full sentences. Do not use bullet point structure. As I stated earlier, one of the factors that made Malinowski different from other anthropologists was his abandonment of the armchair approach. An example of this is when he went to New Guinea, and unable to get back to London, he ended up staying there longer and was able to conduct thorough research. This made him realize the importance of participant observation in fieldwork. Another factor that made him different was his ability to make use of participant observation as well as formalize long-term fieldwork. Finally, he was one of the first to manage participant observation and set the groundwork for being able to manage participant observation which led the way for future anthropologists.

The researcher that you identified in the first photo did research in the Trobriand Islands. List three things the researcher found out while conducting research with these people. Respond in full sentences. Do not use bullet point structure. Malinowski learned a lot while doing fieldwork in the Trobriand Islands. One of the things he found out was when he was writing about his interactions with the Trobriander's, he would later review the notes and turn them into ethnography and make it through the view of the native which would later be called the emic perspective. Another thing he learned while he spent his time with the Trobriander was that hierarchy was less crucial than just understanding one’s culture. Lastly, was his discovery of the importance of fieldwork and specifically participant observation and how effective it is at getting information. Learning Activity 3 Using the previous scenario where an ethnographer wants to understand what life is like as a student of Wilfrid Laurier University, think about who could represent a key participant, that they could observe and interview, then think about a key event they could attend in order to gain deeper insight to everyday student life. In no less than 200 words (that means 200 or more, plus minus 10% that is between 180- 200 words; I won’t read responses above 2220 words ) , identify at least one key participant and one key event and explain why you chose them. You are not to use the example of an Orientation Week as has already been used in our course notes posted on MyLS. I believe a key participant in this study would be some researcher who participates in school activities. This means the researcher acts more like a student, to try to understand the life of student and what they go through daily. The reason why the researcher would act as a student is that students tend to act differently to people of status at school. For example, a student would not interact with a professor the same way as they do with fellow students. I feel a key

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