Links
Ethnographic Research Center
-
Archdiocese
of Santa Fe. “El Santuario de Chimayo, the Lourdes of America.”
To search the National Register of Historic Places information system (NRIS):
-
Calloway, Donald. Methods
Used in Ethnographic Inquiry in Alaska.
Regulating harvest and wildlife resources in Alaska if often devolved to “local communities and their customary and traditional practices.” Through the use of a variety of anthropological methodologies, including ethnographic community studies and oral histories, local perspectives have been incorporated into management decisions. Calloway’s study explores how ethnography can bring “contextual understanding of individual communities” and thus better communication between communities and resource managers as well as culturally appropriate ways for managing resources.
-
Crespi, Muriel (Miki). A
Brief Ethnography of Magnolia Plantation: Planning for Cane River Creole National
Historic Park.
Interest in the people with traditional associations to Magnolia plantation, one of the two plantations incorporated into Cane River Creole National Historical Park (CARI), and in the development of the new park’s General Management Plan prompted this brief ethnographic study. We hoped to bring diverse voices to planning dialogues about resources, interpretation, and alternatives by walking the grounds that associated people consider culturally meaningful and by interviewing ethnically different peoples individually or in groups. Our interest focused particularly on the associated peoples who perceive park resources as essential to their development and continued identity as culturally distinct people. The same community members rarely participate in public planning hearings, but the research process would help inform them about the park taking shape in their midst. Additionally, the project would demonstrate the value of professional cultural anthropological or ethnographic work to “ground-truthing” community concerns by the researchers’ direct interaction with people and places. We interviewed people who were born or lived and worked at and near Magnolia. We identified the ethnographic resources, or places and landscapes they considered culturally meaningful, and the ways they perceived their past and wished it conveyed to the visiting public. To help contextualize people’s responses, we also lightly sketched the political, economic, social and geographic aspects of plantation life in the mid-20th century. [Crespi 2004]
- Crespi, Muriel and Carla Mattix. Negotiating Ethical and Legal Mazes in the Federal Workplace.
The mandates that control actions in the federal workplace often challenge academic principles of conduct. Particularly vulnerable is the anthropologists' image of themselves as champions of powerless and voiceless groups in an arena perceived as dominated by a hostile government. This is coupled with convictions that socially responsible anthropology respects individual privacy while disseminating data to encourage culturally informed public and federal decisions. Using examples involving federal cultural and natural resources, we show conflicts within this suite of perspectives and with the demands of the federal workplace. The need for legally defensible decisions, responses to publics with diverse agendas, and requirements for confidentiality and public access to government records test our anthropological convictions as well as available legal protections of individual privacy and the public's right to know. Perhaps the anthropological community will strategize about more effective remedies for the problems of meeting the concerns of the individuals and the publics it cares about. [Crespi and Mattix 2000]
- Freedom of Information Act. Your Right To Federal Records: Questions and Answers on the Freedom of Information Act and Privacy Act
This document provides basic guidance about the FOIA and the Privacy Act to assist citizens in exercising their rights. It uses a question-and-answer format to present information about these laws in a clear, simple manner. The document is not intended to be a comprehensive treatment of the complex issues associated with the FOIA and the Privacy Act.
The questions answered here are those frequently asked by persons who contact the Federal Citizen Information Center (FCIC) of the U.S. General Services Administration for information on the FOIA and the Privacy Act. The answers were compiled by the FCIC, along with the Justice Department-the agency responsible for coordinating the administration of the FOIA and encouraging agency compliance with it. The Office of Management and Budget (OMB), which has a similar responsibility for the Privacy Act, reviewed the answers to questions on that law. For the text of the Act THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT 5 U.S.C. § 552 As Amended in 2002
-
Schoepfle, Mark. Ethnographic
Resources Inventory and the National Park Service.
Ethnographic resources are seen as “a window into the cultural knowledge of traditionally-associated peoples and park neighbors.” Through the use of the Ethnographic Resources Inventory, a data management system that stores information on ethnographic resources electronically, the value of ethnographic resources through the eyes of Park resource managers and traditionally associated peoples can be recorded and the database used as a management tool. The ERI is seen as a tool that will further aid in the stewardship of the nation’s living heritage.
-
Williams, Brett. Rapid Ethnographic
Assessment: Park Users and Neighbors, Civil War Defenses of Washington and
Anacostia Park, District of Colombia, For Park Management Plans.
The Rapid Ethnographic Assessment Procedures (REAP) of the Civil War Defenses of Washington (also known as the Fort Circle Parks) and Anacostia Park in the Washington, DC, metropolitan area were designed to assist the National Park Service in preparing management plans. The study builds on the National Park Service's commitment to collaborate with communities in the vicinity of its park units, and to use applied ethnographic research to learn of cultural issues and other local concerns. The study had two overarching goals: to identify and document cultural meanings and traditions people attach to the parks, and to solicit concerns and suggestions for change from park neighbors and visitors. Researchers were to report these concerns without acting as their advocates. [Williams 1997]
