Assignment: In introducing his magisterial ethnography of Trobriand peoples, Bronsilaw
Malinowski asks us to “imagine yourself suddenly set down surrounded by all your gear, alone on
a tropical beach close to a native village, while the launch or dinghy which has brought you sails
away out of sight.”  In this assignment, we will elaborate on Malinowski’s idea that anthropology
begins with an act of the imagination.  Using an article from an anthropology journal, students will
write an imaginary diary recounting fieldwork among those people.  Diaries should include
imagined observations, interviews and other details.  Papers should be approximately 1500 words
(5 double-spaced pages) and include a bibliography.  They are due May 2 at the beginning of
class.  Late papers will incur a substantial grade penalty.

Follow these steps as you write your papers:
1. Find an interesting article from a print or online journal.  Choose your article carefully; it must
be an article rather than a book review.  It should explain some aspect of the cultural and social
lives of people not mentioned in class lectures, texts or films.  That is, it should be cultural
anthropology rather than one of the other anthropological subfields (e.g. physical anthropology).
In addition, the article must be from an anthropology journal: interesting websites, popular
magazines or academic journals from other disciplines (e.g. philosophy) are fine as supporting
materials but are not acceptable as your primary source!  Here is a partial list of journals
available at Towson University:
                                    american ethnologist              Cultural Anthropology
                               American Anthropologist      Anthropological Quarterly
                               Current Anthropology         Human Organization
                               Ethnology                    Public Culture

2. Read the article and imagine going to that place as an anthropologist.  What would you see?
Who would you meet?  What would they tell you?  What would you (as an anthropologist) find
interesting or useful?

3. Write your imaginings in the form of a fieldwork diary.  Use Hill Gates’s Looking for Chengdu
as a model for your diary entries.  Include as much descriptive detail as you can and try to stay
close to your primary source.

4. As you write your papers, try to incorporate as many of the ideas from this class as you can,
especially those on culture, globalization and cultural acquisition, together with what you’ve
learned about ethnographic fieldwork.

When I read:
In evaluating your writing, I will always look for:
1). Original ideas.
2). Clear organization and development of those ideas.
3). Vivid, precise examples to support your ideas.
4). Fair, thorough, careful and creative use of class readings and discussions.
5). An engaging style and your personal voice.
6). Inclusive language.
7). Active verbs.
8). Words that you choose carefully to convey exact shades of meaning (avoid cliches).
9). Sentences that are free of grammatical mishaps and misspelled words.

Warning: Plagiarism is unacceptable at Towson University and will result in a flunking
grade.  See Towson University Undergraduate Catalog, Appendix F.