Tom's student Michelle, doing "participant observation" with Dark Star,
her main informant, of a motorcycle club.
Each semester that I teach Methods in Cultural Anthropology, students do participant observation once a week befriending and interacting with the people of some subculture in Dallas/Ft. Worth of which they are unacquainted. At the end of the semester they turn in an ethnography term paper of those 'natives' for their term project. The method I usually have students follow is that developed by the late James Spradley in his 1980 book titled Participant Observation. Sometimes I instead have students work from the simple handbook titled Field Projects In Anthropology, by Julia Crane and Michael Angrosino. And when I have co-taught with my colleague Tom Woodward we have used parts of Russell Bernard's book, Research Methods In Anthropology.
Below are some brief directions to the students. Following that is a list of the ethnographic studies that have been done by students in my classes.
Directions to the Students
Student Vitaly doing "participant observation"
as a waiter-bartender at a Dallas restaurant.
Try to find a 'microculture' or 'cultural scene' to study that is different or unique from what you are used to, and which is cross-culturally different from your background. Ideally, it would be good if the people you study or interview are of a different ethnic background than you, such as Hispanic, Asian, or African-American (if you are a WASP). It is all right if you to choose to study a religious scene, but if it is of a Christian group, we would like it to be 'exotically' different from your norm. A non-Christian religious scene would be better, and we would prefer that over a 'Christian' scene. We also prefer that you choose a scene where you do at least some participant observation. That is, where you have some social interaction with the regular participants and, if possible, where you join in with them in some of their behavior, or at least try to. A study of television soap operas while sitting in your own living room would not impress us, nor would a study where you sit on a bench and watch people buy soft drinks from a vending machine from 50 feet away.
Student James doing "participant observation" at a Dallas blood bank.
Ideally, we would prefer that each student study a different cultural scene; but this is not always practical. We do ask, however, that no more than two of you study the same scene. In unusual cases, 3 might be okay, but clear it with us first.
IMPORTANT: Please do not choose a scene which brings you into a possibility of physical harm or danger, or which requires you to behave in a way which violates your own ethical-moral code. Finally, in this course I will not allow students to study any scene which involves unlawful activity.
'Cultural Scenes' Studied by Headland's Students
Bars, Businesses, Centers of Activity, Clubs, Restaurants, Educational Places, Government Places, Medical Places, People Doing Things, Religious Scenes, Social Services, Sports Events.
BARS (Scene List)
- 'Barbecue Pit Club' (a western bar)
- 'J.R.s Club' (a gay bar in Dallas)
- 'Jugs' (a lesbian bar in Arlington)
- a pool hall and bar
- a western-style saloon
- an Irish pub
- 'Double Deuce' western country dance hall & bar
BUSINESSES (Scene List)
- a black funeral parlor/mortuary
- 'India Store' (dept. store run by East Indians for people from India)
- a motel owned and run by East Indians
- a bridal shop
- a donut shop (Korean owned)
- a flea market (Traders' Village)
- a French bakery
- a gambling casino
- a health food store
- a horse auction
- a barber shop
- a jewelry store
- a laundromat
- a livestock (cattle) auction
- a pawn shop
- a pet shop
- a pet cemetery
- a store selling baseball cards
- a tattoo parlor
- a wig shop (makes & sells hair wigs)
- a winery (factory that makes wine)
- an antique auction house
- an automobile junk yard
- an outside produce market
- May Hao Market (Vietnamese)
- suburban garage sales
- a hair salon (beauty parlor for blacks)
- a bait and tackle shop
- a car salesman
CENTERS OF ACTIVITY (Scene List)
- a college dorm lounge
- a school kitchen at a Dallas Hispanic school
- a video arcade ('Aladdin's Castle')
- an arcade area at the West End
- the Dallas downtown bus depot
- walkers (exercise) in Red Bird Mall
CLUBS/SODALITIES (Scene List)
- a Filipino professional dancing team
- a group of abortion protesters picketing an abortion clinic
- a militant communist labor party
- an African Amer. aerobics class
- a senior citizens' water aerobics swimming class
- a weightlifting gym
- a jazzercise aerobics fitness program
- African-Americans protest-picketing a radio station
- Blue Dragon Explorer Post (an Asian teen club)
- street musicians
- the Gay Lesbian Association at UTA
- a motorcycle club
RESTAURANTS (Scene List)
- a Chinese restaurant
- a family-owned El Salvadoran restaurant
- a Hispanic restaurant
- a McDonald's restaurant (not recommended)
- a Palestinian family running a Middle Eastern restaurant for Arabs
- a pizza parlor / fun center (a teen hangout)
- a truck stop
- a Vietnamese restaurant
- an Ethiopian restaurant ('Queen of Sheba')
- Billy Bob's (a 'honky-tonk')
- Waffle House restaurant at 5 a.m.
- a jr. high cafeteria
- a "coffeehouse"
EDUCATIONAL PLACES (Scene List)
- a ballet dance school
- a beauty (cosmetology) college
- a country western dance school
- a first grade class at a Dallas Hispanic school
- a flamenco dance school studio
- a martial-arts (karate) studio
- a drivers' ed school
GOVERNMENT PLACES (Scene List)
- a Federal courtroom in Dallas
- a fire station
- a hospital emergency waiting room
- a police officer on night patrol
- a policeman clocking cars with radar
- a police station
- a public library
- an air control tower
- county courts (civil suits)
- courtroom (where one goes when he gets a traffic ticket)
- Dallas Municipal Court
- the dog pound
- Midlothian prison
- The Corrections Corp. of America (a prison)
MEDICAL PLACES (Scene List)
- a blood bank (blood-donation center)
- a Chinese acupuncture clinic
- a veterinary clinic
- elderly residents in a nursing home
- a Hispanic health clinic
- a woman's clinic at a community center for American Indians
- nurses' aides in a nursing home
PEOPLE DOING THINGS (Scene List)
- a Cambodian refugee family
*Note: It usually does not work out to study a nuclear family of immigrants in their private home, especially if none of them knows English, because often the social situation is too small, that is, too few people, and they often become overdependent on the student. - a black shoeshine man
- a Japanese immigrant 'Moonie' selling flowers at a Dallas intersection for the Unification Church
- a Kurdish refugee family*
- a Laotian refugee family's home (in Little Dallas)*
- a taxi stand in West End
- Filipino customers in a Vietnamese seafood store
- fishermen on the banks of Joe Pool Lake
- hobos (how they 'ride the rails')
- homeless street people in downtown Dallas
- people at the site of John F. Kennedy's assassination
- security officers in a bank
- security officers at a mall
- security staff in a hotel
RELIGIOUS SCENES (CHRISTIAN) (Scene List)
- a black Full Gospel church
- a Catholic charismatic commune
- a Catholic convent
- a Catholic mass
- a Russian Orthodox church
- a Samoan church
- an African church (Christian)
- a Tongan Melanesian church (in Dallas)
- a chapel in a psychiatric hospital
- an Indonesian Bible study group (not recommended)
- Eagle's Nest Church
- a Greek Orthodox church service
- a Korean church
RELIGIOUS SCENES (NON-CHRISTIAN) (Scene List)
- a Jewish synagogue (not recommended)
- a Hare Krishna temple
- a Dallas Thai Buddhist temple
- a Buddhist temple in Dallas
- a Mormon church
- a Muslim mosque in Richardson
- a New Age church
- a unity church
- a Unitarian Universalist church study group
- an African American Muslim community
- the 'Masjid Hassan of Al Islam' sect in Fort Worth
- The Dallas Buddhist center