2003 Report
Ethnographic Field Methods Program, Year 2

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PROGRAM OVERVIEW
The Center for Social Well Being, a non-profit Peruvian-based research institute, carried out a 3 week Summer Program with courses in language, ethnography, and field methods from June 15 - July 5, 2003. Students were housed at the center's rural base, an adobe lodge on an ecological ranch in the Cordillera Blanca mountain range of the Callejon de Huaylas, 7 hours northeast of Lima. Coursework consisted of classes in Spanish, Quechua, Ethnography of Andean Knowledge, and Participatory Action Research theory and methods. 

A combined group of advanced undergraduate and graduate students (19 total) from the US, Canada, Honduras, Spain and Great Britain participated in the 2004 program. The program balanced formal classroom instruction with practical experience of field work assignments. Students observed and participated with local residents in settings such as, market bartering, meetings of the district authorities, primary school classes, organized women's groups, participatory research sessions, preparation and celebration of fiestas, medicinal plant identification, gathering, and treatments; as well as daily and seasonal productive activities. 

Students' Comments 

• "I was surprised that hats would be such key locaters of place and space. I didn't know that when I bought a traditional campesino hat of Carhuaz it would be such a conversation opener and identifying factor tied to a certain way of being/living." 
  

• "What I have learned about ethnographic methods is that there are many different ways to observe or participate with a culture. I have learned that ethnographic study can take a lifetime."
  

• "The most important thing in doing an ethnography is actually to be part of the community or movement that one is trying to do research about."
  

• "I learned a good deal about teamwork, leadership and methods of performing field work in a respectful, fruitful way which engages and hopefully helps the community as well as myself." 
  

• "I have seen pride and joy, richness in poverty and many beautiful faces along the road. What I have learned has given me great hope for the future of anthropology. Empowering people instead of writing about them seems like a much better approach."
  

• "I learned much on this journey about participant observation. Having not done much field work as of yet, I was pleased to be able to practice this skill in Catay. I am not sure if my perceptive powers have grown, but my confidence with the experience will guide me well." 
  

• "Participatory Action Research is a great way to teach and empower people while, at the same time, learning from them. Learning in groups is beneficial in many ways. People learn from each other and share ideas while the researcher learns from the collective group." 
  

• "My experiences here have given me new sentiments about the world I live in. Talking with so many amazing people who are making a difference in their own communities has given me mixed feelings about my role. But, I have seen women working for the rights of mothers and daughters; and curanderos working to maintain a traditional, sustainable, affordable health system."

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