Five Ethnographic Books that Every Anthropologist Should Read

In this episode, I want share five ethnographies that truly inspired me as I worked on my PhD and shaped the way that I understood social science in the early years of my research career. In my opinion, these are some of the most valuable ethnographic books that students in anthropology and qualitative sociology should be reading today. Side note: I'm fighting off a cold, so apologies for my voice this week!

The host, Dr. Alexander K. Smith, holds an MA from Oxford University and a PhD in the anthropology of Tibet and the Himalayas from the University of Paris, France.

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On Jero Tapakan:
So, the Jero Tapakan film series (1979) consists of four short to medium-length ethnographic films: (1) A Balinese Trance Seance; (2) Jero on Jero: A Balinese Trance Seance Observed; (3) The Medium is the Masseuse: A Balinese Massage w/Jero Tapakan; (4) Releasing the Spirits: A Village Cremation in Bali. They are all partially viewable through Documentary Educational Resources (der.org), who have purchased the rights to a huge number of ethnographic films shot in the 20th century. DER, however, seems to be pretty ferocious about guarding their intellectual copyright -- so I 'cannot' recommend sailing the high seas to find full versions of the films. But they're almost certainly out there, which might come as a relief because DER charges an enormous amount of money to access their content online, as well as even larger sums to purchase physical media. Still, the Jero Tapakan series is fantastically interesting when you watch it along with its written material. If you can find them, it's something I highly recommend for students in visual anthropology and media studies.

Works cited:

Abu-Lughod, Lila. 1986. "Veiled Sentiments: Honor and Poetry in a Bedouin Society". University of California Press.

Connor, Ash, and Ash. 1979. "Jero Tapakan: Balinese Healer. An Ethnographic Film Monograph". Cambridge University Press.

Graeber, David. 2008. "Direct Action: An Ethnography". AK Press.

Holmes, Seth. 2013. "Fresh Fruit, Broken Bodies". University of California Press.

Kulick, Don. 2019. "A Death in the Rainforest: How a Language and a Way of Life Came to an End in Papua New Guinea". Algonquin Books.

Lévi-Strauss, Claude. 1955. "Tristes Tropiques". Penguin.

00:00 Introduction
00:38 Fresh Fruit, Broken Bodies (2013)
03:12 Veiled Sentiments (1986)
05:32 Jero Tapakan: Balinese Healer (1979)
08:05 A Death in the Rainforest (2019)
11:09 Direct Action: An Ethnography (2008)
13:36 Conclusion