What makes a good anthropological ethnography?

Ethnographies as long-hauled research reports that combine detailed descriptions of social lives with analyses of their symbolisms and practices, used to be carried out mostly by anthropologists, and also by sociologists. In recent years, however, they have become adopted by several other academic disciplines and specialities wishing to provide more qualitative detail to their studies. While it is true, as Ingold claimed, that anthropology is not limited to ethnography, it is also true that anthropological ethnographies are quite distinct from those produced within other scholarly disciplines. In this course, we will revise and discuss the characteristics of good anthropological ethnographies, in order to better identify the defining features of our disciplinary contributions to this genre. We will combine reading ethnographic monographs with articles and book excerpts reflecting about qualities of anthropological thought, research, analyses, and writing. This course is geared to provide critical tools to identify and assess ethnographic texts. The resulting repertoire of critical tools will thus also help examine narratives produced by anthropologists using other media