Emerson Literature Review Week 1

Response to Emerson Reading, Week 1

I am not very familiar with ethnography, so reading this chapter and putting together this summary has been a good introduction for me.  Ethnography is a relatively new field.  I’m amazed at how quickly it has developed into a complex discipline with many branches.  I am also impressed with how carefully analyzed the field and its experts seem to be, despite being new.  There is a healthy respect for what ethnographers do, and how they can either help or hinder their research based on the even seemingly minute choices they make every day.  Ethnographers realize they can have an enormous impact on the world through their research.

There was a minor annoyance I had when reading this chapter—the author’s style of sentence structure.  Most of the time he describes what a term or concept is NOT before he describes what it IS.  Although in many cases this can be a helpful descriptive tactic, it can also be confusing for those who are not as familiar with the topic.

This chapter was replete with important basic concepts.  There is also a full complement of vocabulary words.  Although I could not include every important point and definition, I have highlighted the main ones in my literature summary.  If you would like an electronic copy of that summary, please email me at ataylor@bcc.ctc.edu.  Thanks!