A descriptive reflection on sources

Final Project Guidelines

For the Final Project, due in Week 5, you will choose an indigenous heritage, culture, or community other than your own. You will then submit an Ethnographic Narrative that details an exploration of your selected indigenous group of people. Note: To be concise, hereafter your indigenous heritage, culture, or community will be referred to with the umbrella description of indigenous identity.

Your selected indigenous identity may not fit the UN definitions of indigenous peoples. However, characteristics of this indigenous identity—traditions, economic issues, ancestral lands, and countries of origin, religion, or class—may parallel those of other indigenous groups. By examining your selected indigenous identity as an ethnographic study, you have the opportunity to see with an indigenous point of view, connect across cultures, and build a better understanding of the global environment.

One objective of an ethnographic study is to interpret the changes experienced by a culture or group. So, you may not need to look far to discover an identity that shares the concerns of an indigenous community—perhaps members of the indigenous identity group you selected lived in a close-knit farming community that has seen rapid change away from long-held traditions, for example.

In Weeks 2–3, you submitted Field Notes that address a topic or theme related to exploring your selected indigenous heritage, culture, or community. The Field Notes assignments are your method for compiling and interpreting the information that you will synthesize in the Final Project.

Week 5—Final Project

In Week 5 you will pull all of the Final Project sections together into one document, make any necessary revisions, and incorporate any needed Instructor feedback. Your Final Project should be 5–6 pages long and include:

 A descriptive reflection on sources of your selected indigenous identity  An evaluation of how two of the five role perspectives from Thinking Like an Anthropologist (pp. 8–9) influenced, changed, or reinforced the conception of your selected indigenous identity  A description of two or three questions about your selected indigenous identity that remain unanswered, and that you may pursue in the future

Note: Use your Field Notes to support your points. Think of the Ethnographic Narrative as a synthesis of the data that you gather in your Field Notes.