Observing New York 
Observing New York Essay
Deadline: Monday, May 4th, in class.
This writing assignment gives you the chance to act as the very anthropologists that you already are.
Throughout the semester, we have and will continue to talk about the various ways that humans interact with each other and their environment from a variety of perspectives—kinship relationships, gender roles, political-economy, the socially-mediated construct of race, ethnic distinctions, religious affiliation, sexuality, class, and eventually from a capitalist global economic perspective. New York as a city and surrounding areas are vibrant places that include almost as many different manners of social interaction as there are people. Go into these spaces, yourself, to observe the kinds of interactions going on around you, and the kinds of contradictions you might see. Your job is to describe and analyze these. You will essentially be doing a mini-fieldwork project.
Your task:
1) As participant-observers, sit and observe the area and people around you. Take at least 20 minutes of sitting in one place, and, with a notepad and pen or a computer, take notes, observing the world around you. You can go to someplace as iconic as Times Square, on the subway, or simply sit in your neighborhood near a local bodega or in a nearby park.
Begin simply by taking notes and jotting down the things around you and the things and people you see. Use as many tools as necessary (notes, drawings, maps, etc.). Think about and answer some of the following questions:
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Take note of the people around you. How do they differ? What do their interactions with one another say about the kinds of gendered, racial, economic, ethnic, kin, or even political relationships between and among these people? What might their occupations or activities in this space tell you about them?
-
How do the various larger perspectives we’ve discussed thus far throughout the semester interact with one another? For instance, how might religion and
Deadline: Monday, May 4th, in class.
This writing assignment gives you the chance to act as the very anthropologists that you already are.
Throughout the semester, we have and will continue to talk about the various ways that humans interact with each other and their environment from a variety of perspectives—kinship relationships, gender roles, political-economy, the socially-mediated construct of race, ethnic distinctions, religious affiliation, sexuality, class, and eventually from a capitalist global economic perspective. New York as a city and surrounding areas are vibrant places that include almost as many different manners of social interaction as there are people. Go into these spaces, yourself, to observe the kinds of interactions going on around you, and the kinds of contradictions you might see. Your job is to describe and analyze these. You will essentially be doing a mini-fieldwork project.
Your task:
1) As participant-observers, sit and observe the area and people around you. Take at least 20 minutes of sitting in one place, and, with a notepad and pen or a computer, take notes, observing the world around you. You can go to someplace as iconic as Times Square, on the subway, or simply sit in your neighborhood near a local bodega or in a nearby park.
Begin simply by taking notes and jotting down the things around you and the things and people you see. Use as many tools as necessary (notes, drawings, maps, etc.). Think about and answer some of the following questions:
-
Take note of the people around you. How do they differ? What do their interactions with one another say about the kinds of gendered, racial, economic, ethnic, kin, or even political relationships between and among these people? What might their occupations or activities in this space tell you about them?
-
How do the various larger perspectives we’ve discussed thus far throughout the semester interact with one another? For instance, how might religion and