Comments on: Anthropology, Educational Psychology and Experiential Learning

By: Nancy

Nancy — Fri, 27 May 2005 12:02:52 +0000

That’s definitely something I would like to try. Thanks for the tip!

By: Lonely Donut Man

Lonely Donut Man — Thu, 26 May 2005 12:30:01 +0000

Sorry for the delay, I was digging and rooting in my garden. The ‘villager’ was an external agent with a script. He was also wearing some impromptu regalia. This would be a good exercise for any beginning students in the profession. You could use some Grad volunteer to be the ‘villager’ – create an open space in the classroom, have the students gather around, tell them they are to observe a Tassaday man in his home for 15 minutes, record their observations and form a professional opinion of what was occuring, have a small group discussion of what they observed then have the villager tell them what was actually occuring.

By: Nancy

Nancy — Wed, 25 May 2005 21:28:33 +0000

Lonely Donut Man(love that name): was the “villager” in this exercise a fellow student? Or an external participant?

Thanks for your comments . . . I was afraid that my first post ever would be a flop!

By: FieldNotes: Occasional Musings on Anthropological Topics

FieldNotes: Occasional Musings on Anthropological Topics — Wed, 25 May 2005 17:37:17 +0000

Experiential Teaching in Anthropology

Nancy at Savage Minds wrote a terrific post yesterday about the value of experiential teaching in anthropology. Here’s a quotation which resonants with me and the goals I strive for as a teacher of anthropology:

With experimentation, I have found …

By: Lonely Donut Man

Lonely Donut Man — Wed, 25 May 2005 14:46:10 +0000

The best cross-cultural, suspending-one’s-values and cultural reference points training I ever had involved a role play. we observed a ‘villager’ for about 15 minutes. The guy was carving a stick of sorts (obviously a totem of some kind) and it was readily apparent he was conducting some spiritual ritual because every so often he would put on a mask – he also would hold up the stick/totem to the 4 cardinal directions and every so often while facing in one certain direction, he made specific, repeated gestures. Our discussion centered for the most part on what type of spiritual ritual the ‘villager’ was doing.

Actually, the guy was making a toy for his son, not a totem – he would hold it up to view it from different directions and in relation to the lighting source in his home – he had made a mask for an upcoming ceremony and was simply seeing how it fit and if it might need adjustments – the gestures he was making were to a neighbor, motioning for him to come over because it is not polite to yell at neighbors unless some condition of distress/emergency was occuring in the village. In concluding the exercise, the ‘villager’ told us that his people never discussed their spirituality with outsiders.

The point you make is most valid.