week 4 DQ

DQ 1

An Ethnographic Interview    

First find a friend, coworker, or family member who is willing to be interviewed. Your informant (what many anthropologists now call an “interlocutor”) should be involved with a particular area of culture about which you will interview them. Examples might include a high school-aged-boy who is thoroughly enculturated into the particular cultural experience of an American high school, a computer gamer who is deeply enculturated into the online culture of a particular game, or a co-worker who deeply understands the particular culture of your office. These are only examples. You can interview anyone, but you should focus the interview on the cultural experience about which they are most knowledgeable. Using Chapter 11 of Applied Anthropology: Tools and Perspectives for Contemporary Practice as a guide, develop a list of five to seven questions that you will use in your ethnographic interview. Include at least (1) one present tense question, (2) one grand-tour question, (3) one experience question, (4) one feeling question, and (5) one knowledge question. Conduct your interview, and then post the responses to your questions.

Your initial post should be at least 250 words in length. Support your claims with examples from required material(s) and/or other scholarly sources, and properly cite any references

DQ2

  Rapid Anthropological Assessment Procedure (RAPs)    

Discuss how you would apply the Rapid Assessment Procedures (RAPs) methods described in Chapter 14 of Applied Anthropology: Tools and Perspectives for Contemporary Practices to this hypothetical scenario described on page 259 of the textbook:

A pipeline containing natural gas is to be built running from the Northwest Territories through northern Saskatchewan to the Prairies and southward to the United States. A new road will have to be built alongside it. Among the communities near the pipeline and where the road will be for the first time, is a village of approximately five hundred people consisting largely of Chipwyan, Cree, and Métis people. About 40 percent of the household heads are still full-time trappers. The remainder also engage in trapping and subsistence activities to some extent. Recently, though, the community has been hard hit economically and has to rely a lot on transfer payments from the Province and federal government. Although there will likely be provision for Native employment in the construction phase lasting about eighteen months, approximately 1,000 non-Native workers from  the south will also likely be involved. (Ervin, 2005)

As a research consultant how would you use RAPs to examine the needs of the Native communities? Include a list of at least five questions that you would ask in each effected household that would provide information about cultural beliefs and livelihood methods.  

Your initial post should be at least 250 words in length. Support your claims with examples from required material(s) and/or other scholarly sources, and properly cite any references.