Supplies: During the quarter you will need: transparencies with erasable marker audio tapes video 8 (digital) cassettes 35mm camera and 1 roll of film for slides 10 recordable (650 MB) CDs (you might need only 2 but if you make mistakes, you will need more).

Assignments and Readings: Assigments are either due in class or to me by the Monday before the next class (either in my mailbox -- in Anthropology, Hershey Hall, 3208 -- or over e-mail). Readings. I will not check whether you've done the readings (e.g. by giving you to write summaries). The idea is that if you do the readings well (i.e. not rushing), your understanding of the assignments and your overall understanding of what "methods" really means will be at a much higher level than if you just do the assignments without the readings. In fact, if you only do the assignments and don't take the time to think about them theoretically ­ through the readings and your notes from class lectures and discussions --, you will probably get a good grade but an impoverished view of what methods are. Hand-outs. You will prepare a number of hand-outs throughout the quarter. You can either be responsible for making copies of the hand-out for everyone in the class or leave a copy in my mailbox on Monday and I will get copies made for the Wednesday class.

October 4: a) Introduction to the course: schedule, readings, assignments. b) Ethnographic accounts. c) Class exercise. a) Introduction to the course (schedule, readings, assignments); b) discussion of what "methods" means; c) lecture on the notion of "documentation" in anthropology and linguistics; d) class-exercise in observing. Assignment # 1. ("Bare"): Find a spot where you can observe people coming into a place (e.g. a store, a building, a classroom, a coffee shop, a dorm, etc.). Hang around for an hour ("hang around" doesn't mean that you can't move). Take mental notes. Do not write down anything (I will know if you cheat!). Then go home and write up an account of how people do "entering X" (with "X" meaning "the place you were at"). This is an account for yourself (i.e. it doesn't have to win a literary prize). By the way, drawings might help. Then do the readings for this week. Concentrate on: (i) the various theories of "culture" and how they might be relevant to your description; (ii) the style and content of the ethnographic chapters in the readings. Prepare a 1 page hand-out [I didn't say "2" or "3"] and 1 overhead to go with a 5 minute presentation about your experience. Practice to make sure that it fits within 5 minutes {For the hand-out and overhead use the technology you are familiar with, I am not interested in anything fancy at this point; you will work more on hand-outs and presentations in the second quarter.] Readings: (i) Duranti, A. Linguistic Anthropology, ch. 2 ('Theories of culture') (ii) Abu-Lughod, L. Veiled Sentiments, ch. 1 ('Guest and daughter'). (iii) Schieffelin, B.B. The Give and Take of Everyday Life, ch. 1 ('Introduction') (iv) Barbash, Ilisa, and Lucien Taylor, Cross-Cultural Filmmaking, Introduction & Part I: Getting going (ch. 1 & 2).

October 11: Prerequisites for participating and observing (a) Discussion of assignment # 1; (b) Presentation by Steven Peckman from the Office of Protection of Research Subjects; (c) lecture on entering the community. Assignment # 2: A) Fill out the human subject protection form and prepare the informed consent. (Leave a copy in Prof. Elinor Ochs' mailbox in Anthropology). B) Write up an account of how you entered the community you are studying and reflect on consequences of choices you made. Use one of the ethnographies in the readings as a model for how to introduce your site. (750-1000 words). Send your account over e-mail to aduranti@anthro.ucla.edu. C) Prepare a hand-out (1 page) and an overhead with the main points you discussed in the written account. [From this time on, when you show your hand-out and overhead, I want you to tell the class whether you've incorporated features taken from the hand-outs and overheads previously shown by other students in the course, i.e. I assume that one is constantly working on how to improve, modify, refine how to communicate via documents] Readings: (a) Duranti, A. (1997) Linguistic Anthropology, ch. 4 ('Ethnographic methods'), pp. 84-102. (ii) Abu-Lughod, L. Veiled Sentiments, ch. 2 ('Identity in relationship'). (iii) Schieffelin, B. (1990) The Give and Take of Everyday Life, ch. 2 ('Language as a resource for social theory'). (iv) Duranti, A. From Grammar to Politics, pp. 14-36 Morgan, M.M. 'Community', in JLA 9 (special issue "Language Matters in Anthropology: A Lexicon for the Millennium")

October 18: Participant-observation I, Guest speaker: Elinor Ochs (a) Discussion of informed consent; (b)presentation and discussion of hand-outs on field entry; (c) lecture on note-taking using diagrams, still camera. Assignment # 3: Take visual documentation of the surroundings relevant to the activity you are interested in studying: a) draw 3 map(s) (make copies on transparencies); b) take a roll of slides and turn in 5 slides on Monday in my mailbox (DON'T use Kodachrome -- it takes several days to be developed); c) Prepare a 5 minute presentation (with the usual hand-out and overhead) on specific ways in which the spatial arrangement of the event you are documenting establishes or supports distinctions, categories of persons, hierarchical vs. egalitarian ethos. Use ethnographies in the readings as models for how to contextualize a site, a group of people, or an event. Readings: (b) Abu-Lughod, L. Veiled Sentiments, ch. 3 & 4. (ii) Schieffelin, B. (1990) The Give and Take of Everyday Life, pp. 37-50. (iii) Duranti, A. From Grammar to Politics, ch. 3 ('Hierarchies in the making') pp. 47-84.

October 25: Audio-Visual Documentation a) Presentation and discussion of maps and slides of field sites; (b) introduction to how to use the video camera to visually document the field site and introduce the participants; introduction to filming techniques (manual focus, use [and abuse] of zoom, long shots, medium shots, close-ups, establishing shots, pans, tracking shots); c) examples from existing films and videos. Assignment # 4: (a) Take establishing shots of field sites as defined in the hand-out (to be distributed in class). In preparing for this assignment, look ahead (Nov. 22), when you will need to edit your material. You will need establishing shots of the place where you work (outdoor and indoor) as well as some shots of the people you will be recording (close-ups, brief exchange to hear their voices). b) prepare an overhead with your comments on the experience for a brief class presentation. Also cue your tape to your best shot (we might show it in class). Readings: Barbash, Ilisa, and Lucien Taylor (1997) Cross-Cultural Filmmaking, Ch. 3 ('Picture') and 4 ('Sound') [just skip the parts that are not relevant to what we do, e.g. on light meters].

November 1: Interviewing a) Presentation and discussion of assignment # 4; b) lecture on types of interview formats. Examples (in audio and video formats) on: (i) planned vs. unplanned interview; (ii) structured vs. unstructured; (iii) third-party (spontaneously generated) interviews. Assignment # 5: a) Prepare a set of questions to guide you in interviewing a participant in the event you have recorded. These questions should explore the emic perspective on the event and its different parts/components/episodes. Use the interview to get a first taxonomy of event-types, genre-types, and participant-types (use Gary Gossen's taxonomy of Chamula verbal behavior as a model, as shown in Duranti's Linguistic Anthropology, p. 108 and Duranti From Grammar to Politics, ch. 4 to infer possible questions through which to arrive at the typification of speech genres). Submit these questions to instructor over e-mail by November 6th; (b) video tape the interview between yourself and the participant; (c) watch the taped interview and make notes keyed to the counter numbers (or time code); (d) make an overhead summarizing the topics covered in the interview and the most revealing statements; (e) prepare a hand-out and a second overhead summarizing what you learned from the interview, what else you need to know and how you could go about investigating it. Readings: (i) Duranti, A. Linguistic Anthropology, Cambridge University Press, ch. 4 pp. 102-112. (ii) Duranti, A. From Grammar to Politics, ch. 4. (iii) Briggs, C. (1999) 'Interview' in JLA 9 (special issue "Language Matters in Anthropology: A Lexicon for the Millennium")

November 8: Digitizing Class exercise: (a) Discussion of interviews; (b) introduction to one type of technology for digitizing (using a Windows machine with Dazzle software to create MPEG files and CDs that can be played on MACs). Assignment # 6: Digitize and create2 CDs in MPEG format using the DAZZLE software (in the Ling Anthro Lab) [see the hand-out on how to use DAZZLE] with (i) your establishing shots of your field site (CD # 1) and (ii) the interview you video-recorded (CD #2).

November 15: NO CLASS (Annual Meetings of the American Anthropological Association, San Francisco, Nov. 15-19)

November 22: Editing (a) Discussion of digitizing and digitized segments; (b) Introduction to editing: theory and practice. i) cutting to continuity; ii) classical cutting; iii) thematic cutting. Editing for research and editing for presentation. Assignment # 7: (a) Using your digitized footage, edit a 3 minute sequence that includes: (i) establishing shots; (ii) footage showing main participants/characters in your study; (iii) a few segments of the interview. (b) Prepare a hand-out on the choices you made in editing your material and what you were trying to accomplish (no overhead this time). Readings: Barbash, Ilisa, and Lucien Taylor (1997) Cross-Cultural Filmmaking, Ch. 8 ('Postproduction') [read the whole chapter, including the parts that do not seem relevant to our work, e.g. 'original score'. Why? Because you never know].

November 29: Creating a transcript with V-Prism (a) Viewing and discussion of edited segments (b) Introduction to using the V-Prism. Assignment # 8: (a) Using the Vprism, transcribe selected portions of the interview and link them to time code (more detailed instructions will be given in class on how Vprism works and how it doesn't work). Readings: (i) Duranti, A. (1997) Linguistic Anthropology, ch.5 ("Transcription: from writing to digitized images") (ii) Schieffelin, B. (1990) The Give and Take of Everyday Life, pp. 37-50.

December 7: Discussion of Vprism and alternative technologies Assignment # 9: a) Prepare a hand-out and an overhead to discuss your experience using V-Prism; b) print out the portions you transcribed (instructions will be given in class on how to do it); c) discuss the properties of the medium and what affords.

Final Assignment (# 10): (a) Review all the hand-outs you prepared for this class; (b) write up as many pages as you want with your reflections; (c) condense what you wrote down to 1000 words concentrating on types of methods, their respective properties, and, more generally, what methods means to you now that the first part of the course is over. Find examples that support your statements. Rewrite the piece integrating the 1000 word essay with the relevant examples. Leave a copy in my mailbox.