Macalester Moodle

This course is an introduction to a particular method of ethnographic data collection known as Ethnoscience. This is not the only method that anthropologists use, and not all anthropologists use it. It is, however, ideally suited to the research requirements of the undergraduate classroom: the need to complete a high quality research project in the course of a single semester. The aim of ethnoscience is to determine how different societies classify and categorize their worlds, and how these systems of classification provide them with guidelines for behavior and a framework to interpret experience. Ethnoscience thus seeks to elicit in a systematic and replicable way the native categories or folk terms of a culture, and to show how these terms (symbols) relate to each other in a system of meaning. Drawing on the interviewing techniques of ethnoscience, this course provides students with an opportunity to develop skills in the area of ethnographic field interviewing—a methodological staple of the discipline of anthropology and the domain of qualitative research. Students will develop these skills in the context of a field research project, which they initiate. The course revolves around generating, analyzing and reporting the data from this project. The interactive format provides weekly opportunities for students to develop and polish their oral presentation skills.

Students will explore the development of clothing from ancient civilizations to the present. We will consider global influences that shaped changing styles and engage critical thinking with regards to the functions of dress in socio-political contexts, cross-cultural influences, identity expression, and as an art form. As we study the history of dress, we will consider who tells these stories, who is represented and who is absent in them, and how do we know this information.