Posted: September 13th, 2017

“There is no such thing as a free gift.” What does this statement mean, and how far would you agree? Discuss with reference to ethnographic examples.

Paper, Order, or Assignment Requirements

You should aim to write 1,500 words (a 10% leeway either side is allowed).

We would expect you:

— to combine different approaches and different ethnographic material;

— to critically assess your ethnographic readings;

— to write a fluent, logically coherent essay;

— to use the Harvard Referencing Conventions

Tutors will take the following criteria into account when marking essays:

Breadth of reading,

Presentation and writing

Quality of argument,

Appropriate examples and illustration,

Appropriate referencing, and bibliography

— An essay needs a structure or plot with a beginning, middle and an end. The best way to do this is to have a main theme and argument, so that all the theoretical points and ethnographic illustrations are marshalled towards that end. Avoid the technique of stating anything and everything that might possibly be relevant in no particular order.

— You are expected to demonstrate your knowledge of at least one ethnography, plus one or two articles. Abstract generalisations without ethnographic illustrations are dry, often ambiguous, and usually unsatisfactory.

— When you use ethnographic illustrations it is best to use 2 or 3 in some detail, describing the relevant contextual factors of the topic being discussed. Avoid the ‘magpie approach’ where you put down lots of little bits of information without the context.

— Try to compare and analyse the different approaches you have learned about. Careful and constructive criticism, bringing both theoretical considerations and ethnographic data to bear on such theories, is particularly impressive. Try to show how different approaches would interpret the same data, or how a particular author might have analysed his or her data in a different way if they had started with different theoretical interests and presuppositions.