Question Description
Overview
This project involves mapping an indoor or outdoor area and conducting an analysis of the structure, infrastructure, and use of the physical space.
Objective
The purpose of this assignment is to develop your ethnographic skills of observation and description by a map of a block or public space in your community and writing a narrative description of what you find.
Getting Started
Select an interesting place or location for your mapping project.
- You could map a city block in your area.
- You could map a park.
- You could map your school.
- You could map your street.
Be sure to select a place where you can spend time.
Think
What place or location do I find most interesting?
Collect Anthropological Data
- Spend time in your chosen location.
- Take careful notes.
- Pay attention to details.
- Draw a map of what you see.
- For an outdoor space, note streets, buildings, businesses, residences, schools, hospitals, and infrastructure such as streetlights, sewers, telephone and electric lines, and satellite dishes, as well as transportation and pedestrian traffic.
- For an indoor space, note rooms, offices, businesses, hallways, entry and exit locations, public and private areas, lighting, sounds, and smells.
- Also note the people – their activities, movements, characteristics, gender, age, and ethnicity.
- Note who or what is absent that you might have expected to find.
- You may want to take photos or a video of the location as part of your data gathering and to supplement your hand drawn map.
- To observe changes in your location, visit more than once. Vary the time of day or the day of the week.
Analyze The Data
- Did you find differences across multiple visits?
- You may compare your map to a “Google Map.” How are they the same or different?
- You might look at US census data for the area You might make a count of how many individuals use the space and identify individuals by age, gender and ethnicity.
Compile Your Report
- Your map, analysis and report should be submitted in digital format with a single file assignment uploaded to Canvas.
- Elements of your report should include the following:
- The Title of the Project (Mapping a Block)
- Your Name and Class Information (Cultural Anthropology, ANTH 1040, School, Section #, Time)
- An reflective abstract. Provide a 100 to 200 word overview of what you learned from the assignment.
- Include your map and descriptive information.
- Your analysis section should include about two pages of narrative that explains the physical space and the association between the physical space its social use.
A list of the sources for your information. If they are online, provide the URL. If you used Google Maps, be sure to provide the link. If you used magazines, journals or books, provide a reference in a consistent format (MLA, APA, etc…).
There is no word limit or count for this assignment. However, the narrative should fully address the assignment. Very brief narratives will negatively impact your assignment learning success.
