Bronislaw Malinowski

Fieldwork An extended period of close involvement with a group of people, during which anthropologists gather the information they need to understand a particular way of life.

Participant Observation Living as closely as possible to the people whose culture is under study. Participation in the lives of the people being studied.

Fieldwork is risky Because we face our own vulnerability.

We face the shock of the unfamiliar.

Culture Shock Panic that develops when an anthropologist or a traveler goes to an unfamiliar place or society, and cannot understand what is happening around them.

Fieldwork is risky Risk offending informants.

Ethnocentrism The opinion that one’s own way of life is natural or correct, and indeed, is the only true way of being fully human.

Cultural Relativism To try and understand the other culture in its own terms, sympathetically enough that the culture appears to be a coherent and meaningful design for living.

Interpretation When something foreign, strange, or separated in time, space or experience is suddenly made familiar, made present, made comprehensible.

Intersubjectivity The common-sense, shared meanings constructed by people in their interactions with each other and used as an everyday resource to interpret the meaning of elements of social and cultural life.

What defines belonging to the group? How are group boundaries policed? Can skateboarding be seen as a form of art? Why? Reflect on Peralta’s role as a participant observer. Is Stacy Peralta’s documentary a good form of “ethnographic translation”? How is skateboarding subculture appropriated by the mainstream?