Ethnographic

L’evenement pose la question du sens ou plutot de l’incertitude de sa signification. A partir de l’analyse des systemes de sens mobilises par les habitants d’une municipalite de l’altiplano du Guatemala, cet article a pour objectif de comprendre les mutations de l’intelligibilite suscitees par la tempete tropicale Stan et les representations qui font de cet evenement vecu un evenement construit. Les parcours migratoires, les trajectoires de scolarisation et les conversions a une Eglise pentecotiste peuvent etre consideres comme des strategies mises en œuvre par les acteurs pour prendre place dans le monde moderne en eradiquant entre autres, les croyances coutumieres. Mais le passage de Stan destabilise ces nouvelles certitudes et insuffle un vent d’inquietude : apres s’etre positionne en rupture face aux croyances ancestrales, l’evenement catastrophique inciterait a reconsiderer cette rupture.

The Death of Kings by Colette F Keen, is a new verbatim theatre work that relives the early 80s during the HIV/AIDS crisis. Drawing on both laughter and tears the play focuses on the experiences of gay men and the response to the epidemic by the gay community, the toll of being surrounded by constant death, stories of survival and the nobility of the individuals facing the devastation of their community. Built on interviews that took place between January and December 2012, the show tells the stories of a varied group of gay men. The Death of Kings is a moving, lively and honest display of how a community came together to face tragedy with hope, grace, courage.

Creation ex nihilo, la Cite nationale de l'histoire de l'immigration qui ouvre ses portes en octobre 2007 est une institution singuliere dans le paysage des musees francais. Ne disposant d’aucune collection prealable, elle initie ses acquisitions dans le domaine des beaux-arts et se dote d’une « collection ethnographique » en vue de la constitution de ses galeries permanentes. Participant d’une volonte de l’institution d’associer la « societe civile » a l’elaboration du patrimoine, sa collection ethnographique se developpe autour de l’archivage des temoignages lies a des parcours de vie. Comment l’idee d’une « collection ethnographique » a-t-elle emerge au sein d’une institution consacree a l’histoire de l’immigration ? Quelle place a-t-on accorde a la demarche ethnologique dans un processus de patrimonialisation initialement base sur une volonte de reconnaissance des memoires ? L’auteur revient sur la genese de cette collection du dernier ne des musees nationaux francais.

Documentary Theatre, and its more recent iteration, Verbatim Theatre, has been a vital theatre form in the West since the early 20th Century, notable for its preoccupation with socio-political issues and its reliance on the actual words of those who witnessed or participated in a particular event or phenomenon. This thesis examines what puts the ‘art’ into Documentary and Verbatim Theatre, while considering its relationship with and roots in journalism. By exploring the influences on practitioners and how these impact their work, the question asked is: What position does the writer take in terms of placing themselves in the text and how does this influence the work? To inform this, it is asked: Is the writer speaking for or with the story-owners. Related questions include: To what extent does the writer have an outsider/insider positionality; what is the intersectionality of the writer with the subject; and what role does empathy play in the creation of such work? This critical reflection provides practitioners, participants, and the audience of Documentary and Verbatim Theatre with new ways of engaging with this arts practice.
To establish the form’s development from journalism to art, the historical influence of journalism is explored. Ethnographic methodology is also employed to analyse the subject positions and working methodologies of two of the great practitioners of this form, Anna Deavere Smith and Moisés Kaufman. Auto-ethnographic techniques are also utilised, drawing from the experience of working as personal assistant to Smith and participating in Kaufman’s professional training in Moment Work.
The practice component of the dissertation is the full-length Documentary Verbatim Theatre script, The Death of Kings (Keen, 2016). This work has been created as an example of a writer speaking with the story-owners and positioning themselves in the audience. The play focuses on the experiences of self-identified white gay men in Sydney, Australia and the response to the HIV/AIDS epidemic by the gay community.

The result of this research is to offer an analytical framework for mapping out the influences on the writers of Documentary or Verbatim Theatre, demonstrating how they create an artistic element not found in documentary and journalism practice. By understanding how Documentary and Verbatim Theatre go beyond journalism, we are given the opportunity to better appreciate and more deeply query the nature of the truth being presented and the art inflecting and underpinning the stories told by the creators of these works.

Since the 1990s, the appropriation of unconventional dressing codes to perform a new masculinity has gradually been normalized as a mainstream practice in East Asian societies. This paper addresses contradictory currents concerning gender
representations operating in East Asia, a fast-growing, rapidly changing region. The personal narratives of nine Taiwanese men, who use unconventional dressing codes to present desirable selves, are analyzed. The men were asked to reflect upon life moments when their dress codes were either pleasurably achieved or bitterly confronted by significant others and higher authorities. The study emphasizes that researchers should place a greater emphasis on how individuals’ lived experiences respond to the postmodern, highly intertextual media environment, rather than on content or textual analysis of media representations of the popular culture scene.
Our research participants’ narratives illuminate a site where hegemonic and alternative masculinity contest one another in search of an ever-changing self. Through an examination of the life narratives of these nine men, our study elicits meta-narratives to illustrate how some local and global actors become established in the East Asian post-capitalist identity politics.

This article examines the historical site of Bithnah fort, United Arab Emirates. Relevant historical sources were investigated, which highlighted the strategic importance of Bithnah’s location in the Wadi Ham. A theoretical date was proposed for the site based on these historical references. The architectural features and material culture were combined with ethnographic information. This combination of sources allowed for a much clearer understanding of the fort’s layout and interior use of space. It also provided a context for the village and agricultural space that surround the fortification of Bithnah.

The willingness to understand the perception and practice of silence is currently receiving an increasing amount of attention in the literature on sociolinguistics and pragmatics. This study aims to investigate silence as perceived and practised by speakers of Australian English and Jordanian Arabic in casual conversation from a socio-pragmatic perspective. It also attempts to anticipate processes in which silence can be created and used in the mainstream of communication. In addition, it identifies problems in perceiving and practising silence in both cultures. The present study also looks at gender differences in both societies. Ethnographic and qualitative data were drawn from in-depth interviews, observations, and video and audio recordings. The data were collected from the North of Jordan and Western Australia. The participants of the study were 24 university students (undergraduates): twelve males and 12 females in both countries. The participants of the study were divided int...

L'anthropologie peut, elle aussi, etre victime de la mode. Depuis une dizaine d'annees, nombreux sont les chercheurs qui “surfent” sur la vague multimedia. La mode est au multimedia, voire a l'hypermedia. Les experts auto-proclames de la discipline anthropologie visuelle / anthropologie hypermedia se multiplient comme il y a une dizaine d'annees, foisonnaient les specialistes du metissage. Un detour par la narration reflexive nous permettra de nous interroger sur le statut de l'image en anthropologie. La “mode” du multimedia est-elle juste conjoncturelle ou representative d'une reelle avancee dans le domaine de la recherche et de la reconnaissance de l'image en anthropologie ?

L’article s’interesse aux liens entre jugements et emotions dans les interactions institutionnelles a partir d’une video-ethnographie des entretiens a l’ANPE. Le jugement est considere comme activite situee qui se deploie dans le temps selon les circonstances de l’entretien plutot que comme une application ou un detournement de criteres predefinis ou comme un resultat reifie. Mobilisant l’ethnomethodologie, l’analyse conversationnelle et l’analyse des categorisations, l’article montre comment les operations d’evaluation d’une part s’ancrent dans les contingences du type de relation qui s’instaure entre les interlocuteurs, et d’autre part, prennent la forme de jugements moraux ordinaires. L’analyse s’attache a montrer le deploiement progressif de ces operations et leurs consequences au plan relationnel, emotionnel et interactionnel.

Present research focuses on the quality improvement at Himachal Pradesh based manufacturing unit a precision machining company for two and three wheeler components. The objective of present research focuses on current Quality Management System (QMS) implemented and to identify the current quality problems that the company faces and to study. Present research is divided into two parts Ethnographic and Qualitative research design. Recommendations and solutions to the problem faced will be suggested to the heads and supervisors, to improve the current quality system, as well as increase efficiency and reduce non conformities. This research only focuses on problem faced in the production section of the company. In the ethnographic part study is focused on plunging of workers and qualitative part research is focused on various causes of rejection. Lean manufacturing tools is considered as the pilot project to solve the problem. Various tools were used such as Multiple activity charts, Pareto chart, PDCA cycles, cause and effect diagram and control chart. With the help of lean tools, plunging of workers come to zero, better working environment is provided to workers, rejection has reduced o 12000ppm from 29000ppm and reduced the loss of organization from 4.02% to 2.79%. Retention of worker saves the training cost. Tool life also increased.

The willingness to understand the perception and practice of silence is currently receiving an increasing amount of attention in the literature on sociolinguistics and pragmatics. This study aims to investigate silence as perceived and practised by speakers of Australian English and Jordanian Arabic in casual conversation from a socio-pragmatic perspective. It also attempts to anticipate processes in which silence can

This study explored the interaction of school and students’ cultures
at a Latino academic/social enrichment after-school programme in
Georgia, USA. I researched if and how students used language, a
defining aspect of cultures, as cultural capital while negotiating
school and student discourses. This study is particularly important
due to the current debates over the definition of American
identity. This interpretive ethnographic research utilised Sociolinguistic
and Critical Theory lenses. I found that there was a wide
disparity in cultural capital between home and school discourses,
and that although Latino students in this study realised this and
were often disempowered when they did not participate in the
mainstream school culture, they also knew how to negotiate
between institution and discourse identities at times through their
language use to suit their interests. Thus, this article is added
evidence in the growing literature that cultural capital can be fluid
rather than static.

A partir de l'analyse des parcours migratoires de deux migrants italiens, piemontais et sicilien, installes a Marseille apres la Seconde Guerre Mondiale, cet article interroge les conditions qui determinent les processus de mobilite socio-spatiale en migration. Une attention particuliere est portee a la constitution de reseaux d'echanges d'informations entre migrants et communautes d'origine et aux formes d'utilisation de l'espace urbain qui permettent, d'une part, les deplacements et l'installation des migrants dans un autre pays et d'autre part, l'insertion professionnelle. L'etude de deux parcours de migrants vise a reveler l'influence de la proximite/distance des lieux de depart ainsi que le role du reseau dans la trajectoire migratoire. La dimension comparative permet de pointer les differences a l'interieur d'un meme groupe de migrants (les “ Italiens ”) provenant de regions differentes. Quelles sont les ressources (socia...

Takes on a city : perspectives on skateboarding in Toyko. This text offers a look into Tokyo's skateboard scene. Through fieldwork and the use of different audio-visual media, the author sheds light on the iconography produced by skateboarders. Their discourses, many of which take the form of images, range from myth to everyday life and structure the scene where interpersonal relationships and interest groups are developed. Through the knowledge of place and their “chronotopy” that skateboarders gain, their scene uncontestably represents part of the urban environment while it simultaneously helps to mark what is urban about it.

It is recognized widely enough that a pre-state society in order to get trans-formed into a state must have a certain size of territory and population, a necessary degree of sociocultural complexity and an ability to produce suf-ficient quantities of surplus. However, sometimes cultures significantly exceed required levels of those parameters without forming states. In addition to this, we know historically and ethnographically a considerable number of stateless societies not at all inferior to the early state societies with respect to their territory, population, sociocultural and/or political complexity. So, the question is: how to classify such societies? Compared to unquestionably pre-state societies, such as, for example, simple chiefdoms, they are not only larger in size but much more complex as well. In certain sense, they can be regarded as being at the same level of sociocultural development as early-state societies. And, since both types of societies faced similar problems and solved similar tasks, I denote (identify) complex stateless societies as early state analogues. This article is an attempt to analyze such analogues and compare them with early states.

Le decompte des journees de travail est une pratique ancienne et l’ethnographie de la communaute paysanne de Llanchu situee dans les Andes sud-peruviennes (Calca, Cusco, Perou) montre que c’est egalement une pratique socialement tres importante. A l’epoque prehispanique, les khipu servaient notamment a indiquer a l’Inca le nombre de jours travailles pour lui. Dans la communaute etudiee, le decompte des journees de travail communales (faena) est l’indicateur principal pris en compte par la collectivite au moment de reviser la liste des membres de la communaute (le padron). Ce decompte est associe a un autre exercice faisant intervenir un classement et des numeros : le choix de l’ordre d’inscription sur cette liste. L’elaboration de ce document permet d’apposer au processus administratif le sceau de la logique sociale paysanne. C’est ainsi que l’une des composantes du tableau fourni par l’administration — un numero — est investie d’une valeur symbolique et est devenue un enjeu social ...

My best mate invited me to a dinner party and I was
purposefully sat next to his denture wearing, yet single
Aunt. She periodically pinched my knee under the table
and gave me a gummy smile .It was at that point that I
decided to use the internet to find a girlfriend.
However, from the thousands of profiles, it seems all of
the single women who have their own teeth live in
Camden, Lambeth and Islington. [Field Journal Entry
Day 1]

The subject of rock art elicits a lot of interests. Although the Trust for African Rock (TARA) Project has conducted research in this field across some parts of the country, not much of has been conducted about rock paintings and engravings on the Eastern Shores of Lake Victoria, Kenya. Previous research involved a general survey of the region but less emphasis was put on mapping of rock art in the study area. This article gives an indepth analysis of their origin and meaning of these cultural heritage resources that are potential ecotourism destinations in Western Kenya. The aims of this study include interrogating various site feature paintings, classifying the rock art and provision of critical ethnographic accounts related to the cultural heritage based on oral reconstruction. Phenomenological and ethnographic modes of data collection alongside visual inspection was employed during the study. Content Analysis was used to develop meanings and values of the rock art paintings. Val...

La conservation de la biodiversite : vers une prise en compte des relations entre les societes locales et leurs natures Une ethnologie pour la conservation ou de la conservation : aider a la co-gestion ou identifier les phenomenes de coercition ? Vers une meilleure integration des sciences humaines et des sciences de la vie dans les programmes de recherche pour / sur la conservation de la biodiversite.

Cet article met en evidence les apports d'une recherche ethnologique dans un projet de preservation de la biodiversite des savanes de Guyane francaise. L'ethnographie des modes de culture, d'elevage, de chasse et de peche des differentes populations en presence renforce la comprehension des savanes comme un milieu anthropique au sein duquel il s'avere vain de chercher a distinguer strictement ce qui serait naturel de ce qui serait cree par l'homme. A partir d'une analyse de pratiques controversees, comme le brulis ou la transformation en pâturage, et de la diversite des perceptions du milieu savane, cette recherche eclaire la multiplicite des apprehensions de la biodiversite et les divergences au sujet de ce que signifie la conserver. L'ethnologie participe ainsi a la co-construction de connaissances sur un milieu complexe, jouant un role d'interface entre les travaux des scientifiques et les savoirs locaux issus de l'experience.

The willingness to understand the perception and practice of silence is currently receiving an increasing amount of attention in the literature on sociolinguistics and pragmatics. This study aims to investigate silence as perceived and practised by speakers of Australian English and Jordanian Arabic in casual conversation from a socio-pragmatic perspective. It also attempts to anticipate processes in which silence can

Dans le cadre de ma these en danse, je developpe un projet de recherche choregraphique intitule Immersive Theatre. Il comporte plusieurs modules. Ce projet experimente et theorise les possibilites d’amplification de la presence de la danse, en relation a un modele de perception base sur l’immersion. Cet article est un compte-rendu d’experimentations realisees en 2008-09 pour le projet choregraphique Immersive Theatre #2, et des premieres analyses apportees. Ce module explore la dimension sonore de la danse, la dimension corporelle du son et la dimension sonore du corps.

This paper describes a short, ethnographic study approach for understanding how people from non-Western cultures think about mental health and mental health problems, and the rationale for using such an approach in designing and implementing mental health interventions during and after disasters. It describes how the resulting data can contribute to interventions that are more acceptable to local people, and therefore, more effective and sustainable through improved community support.

ABSTRACT Since the 1990s, the appropriation of unconventional dressing codes to perform a new masculinity has gradually been normalized as a mainstream practice in East Asian societies. This paper addresses contradictory currents concerning gender representations ...

Penser la biodiversite sans penser les entreprises de conservation qui s’y rattachent (et qui, bien souvent, participent a la definition meme de cette biodiversite) semble aujourd’hui de plus en plus difficile. Mais penser ces entreprises de conservation sans une dimension anthropologique serieuse (qui rendrait compte, par exemple, des biais culturels et epistemiques charries par ces entreprises de conservation) semble tout aussi ardu. Dans cet article, nous revenons sur l’etrange cas des jungles de garage et nous interessons a l’existence trouble de ce(ux) que l’on designe desormais comme de « Nouveaux Animaux de Compagnie » ou Exotic Pets. En effet, plusieurs dizaines de milliers d’animaux reputes sauvages evoluent desormais dans des environnements hautement artificialises. Mi-braconnes, mi-bricoles, quantite de felins, primates et autres reptiles peuplent ainsi centres de reproduction clandestins, foyers trafiques, cours arriere spectacle ou encore sanctuaires evangelisateurs. Ce...

The numbers of learners studying Arabic in the U.S. have increased more than any other language over the last ten years. As a critical language, important for strategic political and economic reasons, Arabic has received considerable support from the Departments of State and Education (Jackson & Malone, 2009; Wiley, 2007). However, Arabic is also a prominent heritage language, important for cultural and interpersonal reasons to the families and communities who speak it and for whom it is a binding force (Fishman, 2001; Van Deusen-Scholl, 2003). Nevertheless, research on learners of Arabic and their learning processes is still very limited. Existing studies have compared Arabic heritage learners’ motivation and the structure of their language knowledge with that of non-HLLs (Husseinali, 2006; Benmamoun, Montrul, & Polinsky, 2010), but HLL research has hardly addressed the complex social and cultural influences on their learning processes (He, 2010; Montrul, 2010). Drawing on investme...

A partir de l'analyse des parcours migratoires de deux migrants italiens, piémontais et sicilien, installés à Marseille après la Seconde Guerre Mondiale, cet article interroge les conditions qui déterminent les processus de mobilité socio-spatiale en migration. Une attention particulière est portée à la constitution de réseaux d'échanges d'informations entre migrants et communautés d'origine et aux formes d'utilisation de l'espace urbain qui permettent, d'une part, les déplacements et l'installation des migrants dans un autre pays et d'autre part, l'insertion professionnelle. L'étude de deux parcours de migrants vise à révéler l'influence de la proximité/distance des lieux de départ ainsi que le rôle du réseau dans la trajectoire migratoire. La dimension comparative permet de pointer les différences à l'intérieur d'un même groupe de migrants (les " Italiens ") provenant de régions différentes. Quelles sont les ressour...