CCSU Professors Abigail E. Adams

Summer 1999 Gloria Marie Caliendo

FIELD SCHOOL IN CULTURAL ANTHROPOLOGY: COSTA RICA

COURSE GOALS: The Field School is a critical component in the education of students who have developed inter-cultural subjectivity and sensitivity, and who have the specific skills and experience to conduct cross-cultural work. Costa Rica is a setting which provides the upper-level anthropology student and other CCSU students with a cross-cultural experience, and the opportunity to develop the qualitative research skills central to Cultural Anthropology. The Field School is also appropriate for Anthropology majors and any student wishing to develop international exposure, cross-cultural skills and language proficiency such as students with a Cultural Anthropology or International Studies concentrations, Latin American studies and Spanish majors. The course work includes readings, a cross-cultural journal, field exercises and notes, and individual research in both Connecticut and Costa Rica. In addition to general participant observation and research notebook development, students will carry out symbolic analysis, oral history interviewing, genealogical methods, kinship analysis, and local-level market research. This year of the Field School is a unique year. It is the second year for this ongoing program but it has been moved to a new location: Costa Rica. The students will help develop and evaluate the materials and exercises, which were initially developed in Guatemala. The Field School is based in the highland town of Heredia, one of the central towns of Costa Rica's central plateau and coffee region.

The Field School course is organized in six parts. The first part takes place in Connecticut and the group will study Costa Rica's culture and history and prepare for their month abroad. The second and third parts take place in Heredia, our home base. The students will study Spanish in the morning and meet for lecture and fieldwork exercises in the afternoon. Monday afternoon is set aside as unscheduled time, and Friday afternoons will be used for travel. Each weekend, we travel to a different culture area and explore Costa Rica's diversity: the Atlantic Coast and Bri-Bri community; the small towns of farmers and artesans of Sarchi and Grecia. During the third part of the course, the students will embark on their individual research project. The professors will facilitate their research, including travel and living arrangements elsewhere if the student requires these. Students are also welcome to continue with a third week of language school. The fourth part of the course is an extended group journey to the highland rainforest and farming communities of Monteverde, including a stay with the families of a cooperative farm in the San Luis valley. The fifth part of the course brings us back to Heredia in order to finish all research write up and say good bye to the host families. We end the course with a set of meetings back in Connecticut to share slides, culture shock and ways of incorporating the Field School into our "States-side" work and lives.

TEXTS REQUIRED:

Paula Palmer, What Happen?

Course Reader

READINGS AND MEETINGS SCHEDULE:

PART ONE: Pre-trip meetings!: 2-5 DiLoreto, unless sweltering; then we default to Willard and air conditioning.

Tuesday, July 13, 1999: Getting Together, Getting Ready!

Journals and General business

Becoming Bicultural

Language evaluation and self-portrait

Keeping a field notebook, interviewing, journaling, exercises to be developed in the field

Book evaluated, questions from book

Exercises and Reading: Houses, Consumption Diary, Preconceptions

Wednesday: Costa Rican History and Background

Movie: "Elvia"

Thursday: On the Road....

Practical Preparations and Courtesies

Review exercises

PART TWO: Field School: First Week: First Impressions, Time and Space

T, W, Th 2-5 meetings with Field School

Exercises: First Impressions, House Mapping (immigration rural-urban, personal identification, education, aspirations)

Ritual analysis

Weekend: The Atlantic Coast and Bri Bri area.

Monday, July 19: First Week in Heredia

8 a.m. Register with Language School

12 Lunch

2 Meet at Mesoamerica for orientation and tour San Jose, the capital city

5 Free time until Dinner with families, study!

Tuesday - Thursday, July 20-22:

8 a.m. Language School

12 Lunch

2 Meet at Field School classroom

5 Free time until Dinner with families, study!

Friday, July 23: Travel to Puerto Limon!

8 a.m. Language School

12 Lunch

2: Travel..

Field School: Second Week July 26-30: All Our Relations: Family, Kin, and Others!

T, W, Th 2-5 meetings with Field School

Exercises: Kinship, Gender, Oral History

Weekend, July 30 -August 1: Sarchi, Grecia and Poas: Village life and Volcanoes

PART THREE Field School: Third Week, August 2 - 6: Individual Research Project

Students will begin work on their individual research project, and may also continue with language school if they wish. If the project requires travel, the professors will arrange this. Possible topics include (but are not limited to!) early childhood, education, markets, male-female relations, worship, health and medical models.

PART FOUR Group Travel: Saturday, August 7- 11 or 12: Travel to Monteverde, Santa Elena and San Luis

PART FIVE Field School Finale: August 12-15:The Local in the Global

These days bring us back to Heredia. Students will write up their individual research project, and other classwork. We will meet for class on August 13. Saturday will be farewells day.

Readings:

PART SIX Back at Home: Culture Shock and Sharing the Experience with Others

Two meetings to be arranged.

Exercises: Self-portrait, language evaluation, program evaluation

REQUIREMENTS: Keep up with the reading!

3 credits: Journals

Field Exercises and Notes

Personal Research Project, including a write-up and presentation

Attendance, participation, and developing the course

6 Credits: All of the above

Research paper, including developing a bibliography