Ramadan

Ethnographic Paper Assignment

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Rituals and Everyday Magic—Interview and analysis

Part 1. Preparation: 1. Read “Baseball Magic” by George Gmelch and Ch. 14 “Religion and Magic” in Cultural

Anthropology by Ember and Ember. Answer the reading questions (on Canvas).

2. Choose a topic and interviewee: a. Think of an example of a behavior that your family or friends do that could be

interpreted as a ritual or magical. (Refer to the definitions of ritual and magic

that you read in “Baseball Magic” and Cultural Anthropology). Here are some

ideas to get you started:

a. You could choose any topic, but some ideas could be about dating, horoscopes, playing the lottery, taking tests, playing sports, ghosts, military rituals, etc.

b. You could ask your friends or family if they have any special family traditions, or things they do to bring good luck or prevent bad luck. This could be an activity or

a habit that people engage in believing that it will affect the outcome of something

seemingly unrelated. Then ask them if you can interview them about it.

a. You could try to “make the familiar strange”: I have read many successful papers that analyze the rituals and magic (usually from an etic perspective) in everyday

things like applying make-up, eating dinner together as a family, dealing with

OCDs, taking care of children, and life during the Covid-19 pandemic.

b. You could choose a straightforward religious ritual (I’ve had interesting papers on rosaries, prayer, and baptism, etc. But the key to doing this type of topic is to

focus on what your interviewee thinks about it and how it relates to/impacts their

life (not just rosaries, prayer, Catholicism, Islam, Buddhism, etc, in general)

2. Interview at least 1 person who does this ritual or everyday magic (or who knows people who do).

a. The interview should be at least 30 minutes. If it is shorter, then interview 2 people. Interview them on the phone, in person, or via Zoom/Facetime. Email

interviews don’t work well for this assignment.

b. You could ask them about what they do, how they do it, and why. How they think it works, when they started doing it, who they learned it from, etc. Or if they don’t

do the ritual, what they think of others who do.

c. Take notes and take photos. Write down quotes. Take photos. This could be of the person doing the ritual, materials used in the ritual, a fetish, taboo or aspect of

the ritual. (Make sure to get their permission before you take their picture)

Part 2: What to include in your paper Requirements for your paper:

 Length: 5-7 pages. (Please don’t go over or under this)

 Double-spaced, 1-inch margins, Times New Roman or Arial font.

 Include page numbers.

 Give your paper a title.

 Include sub-headings: Introduction, Background and Methods, Findings and Analysis, and Conclusion (see below for what to include in these sections)

 Include a Works Cited page

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 You must include at least 1 direct quote from “Baseball Magic” AND

 1 direct quote from Ch. 14 “Religion and Magic” in Cultural Anthropology

 Your paper must include at least 3 direct quotes from your interview

 Proofread your paper for mechanical, spelling and grammatical errors.

 Submit as a .docx or pdf document

Submit (as one document)

1. Your ethnographic paper 2. At least 1 photograph with a caption (this can be embedded in the text or included at

the end. This should be an original photo that you took related to your paper, not just

a random photo from the internet. It is to help you prove your interview was real and

give context to your paper.

3. Your interview notes (these can be handwritten and scanned or typed)

Your ethnographic paper must include the following parts. You MUST use these headings (Title,

Introduction, Background and Methods, Findings and Analysis, Conclusion) in your paper.

They will help you organize your ideas and make it clear to the reader about your points. The

questions below the headings are to get you started thinking about what to include. You can

expand beyond these questions if you like.

Title:

 Think of a creative and descriptive title that will tell me specifically about your topic. (You would be surprised how many students try to give the title “Ethnographic Paper!”)

Introduction:

 Write an introduction that introduces the ritual or magical practice you chose and why.

 It is a great idea to start with a vignette, or a narrative story from your interview or fieldwork to draw us in. (think about how Cathy Small writes scenes in Voyages)

 End this section with your argument or thesis statement. Underline your thesis statement so I can easily locate it.

Background and Methods:

 Who did you interview about this ritual and why did you choose that person? Include their pseudonym and then specific background details about the person that will be

helpful in understanding the significance of the ritual to their life (for example depending

on your topic, please include their age, gender, race/ethnicity, what language they were

speaking, where they live/where they are from originally, etc.) How do you know them?

Where did you conduct the interview and how did it go? How long did the interview last?

Did you observe anyone performing the ritual? Do you also perform it and why?

 Include anything else we should know about the person’s background, or the history or culture where this ritual is from or is practiced that would make it more interesting to

understand.

Findings and Analysis: (this should be the longest section of your paper)

 Give us some background about what the magic ritual is, why your interviewee does it, when and why. Who else does it? How frequent is it? When did it begin? What do people

Ethnographic Paper Assignment

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think about it? Is it done in public or private? Is it unique to a certain place in the world

or country? (This should be just one paragraph or so. Your focus should be the emic and

etic analysis below)

 Emic analysis: Make sure to provide an insider’s perspective on why your interviewee does this ritual. Use at least three direct quotes from your interview. Why do people do

this? What result do they hope happens from conducting the ritual or magic?

 Etic analysis: From an anthropological perspective, what could be some reasons people do this? For this one,

 Remember to define magic and ritual (cite “Baseball Magic” and Cultural Anthropology Ch. 14)

o Use course readings (“Baseball Magic” and Cultural Anthropology as well as any others) to help you analyze the meaning of your findings. (Include citations and

quotes). For example does the ritual satisfy one of the “universal needs or

conditions” of religions listed on page 332 of Cultural Anthropology? If so, which

one(s) and how? Compare the significance or meaning of this ritual with those in

“Baseball Magic.” Are there any taboos, mana, or fetishes related to this ritual?

o Use quotes from your interview. Include at least 3 direct quotes from your interviewee. Make sure to introduce the quote and analyze its significance to your

argument about the ritual.

Conclusion:

 Summarize your topic and overall conclusion about the emic and etic significance of the ritual.

 What do your findings say about the significance of rituals in Saddleback College, your hometown, or contemporary American culture (or wherever you conduct your research)?

How do these rituals compare to those in other cultures?

Photograph and Works Cited

 Take a photograph during your interview and include your photograph somewhere in your paper. Include a caption and/or describe the photo in your paper and explain how it

is related to your topic. Remember, this is supposed to be a photo you take in relation to

your topic (not just one from the internet).

 Include a works cited page. (This does not count toward the 5-7 page minimum).

Very Important Tips:  Focus on your interview and fieldwork data. Your original data should be the majority

of your paper. I do not want to read a whole paper about the history of a ritual from

Wikipedia. I want to read about what your interviewee believes and does (emic) and what

you think that says about religion, magic, belief, etc. (etic). Also, I have noticed that

students tend to (accidentally?) plagiarize when they use outside online sources. I would

suggest just defining the ritual in your own words and giving a very brief history of it in

your own words. Then focus on your interview data.

 Your thesis statement is an argument that you come up with after finishing your interview and fieldwork. It should address what the ritual means or does for your

interviewee or a specific group of people. It should not be about proving whether a ritual

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works or not, or is good or not, or has been around for a long time or not. You can

mention those things in your paper, but they are not a thesis statement. I like this thesis

statement generator: https://johnmcgarvey.com/apworld/student/thesiscreator.html

 Be culturally relativist in your paper. Make sure that you have an open mind and are looking at this with an anthropologist’s lens. Don’t refer to the practice as “superstitious”

because that is ethnocentric! (However, if your interviewee says something is

superstitious that is totally OK! You can analyze why they think that)

 Tell me what your interviewee thinks and what you think of what they said and how it relates to anthropology. Sometimes students start their papers with something they can’t

prove like “Since the beginning of time, man has had religion” or “People have been

practicing this ritual since the dawn of humanity.” There is no way to prove that from

your interview, and that doesn’t tell me anything about the ritual. So, just delete those

kinds of sweeping statements.

 Grading rubric: I will use a grading rubric to grade your paper. I made it directly from this paper prompt. You can look at it on Canvas under “grades” and this assignment.

 Avoid Plagiarism and Academic Dishonesty: Make sure your paper is free from any forms of plagiarism, cheating or other types of academic dishonesty. (Remember this

paper will go through Turnitin's plagiarism checker which will show me if it came from

any other source, including the internet, academic work or other student papers already

submitted). I will also be checking that this is a real interview. Take the “How to Avoid

Plagiarism” workshop at the LRC before you write the paper.