Ethnographies
and Other
Resources to
Read Together
Many anthropologists write ethnographies, books that can give a deep sense
of another community. Order through
interlibrary loan or browse in large
bookstores to find which ones would
suit your family best. You could also
read historical and missionary narratives from the same region. Several
ideas are listed below to get you started:
• Argonauts of the Western Pacific by
Bronislaw Malinowski (1922; reprinted, Waveland Press, 1984)
Long but classic, so you may want to
just read sections. It’s a good early description of trade and travel among
the boating peoples of Melanesia.
• Guests of the Sheikh: An Ethnography
of an Iraqi Village by Elizabeth Fernea
(Anchor, 1995)
Lovely descriptions of Elizabeth’s experiences in Iraq in the 1950s as she accompanied her husband into fieldwork
in a small village. Older but beautiful
description of the Middle East.
• Return to Laughter by Elenore Smith
Bowen (Anchor, 1964)
Also a classic, as Bowen describes the
challenges and joys of fieldwork in
colonial Africa.
. . . Even rural teens
in Mongolia wear
trendy jackets and
sneakers, carry cell
phones, and dream
of attending college
to become teachers
or businessmen.
• The Sanctified Church by Zora Neale
Hurston (Turtle Island Foundation,
1981)
Hurston is better known for her novels but writes entertainingly about
African-American communities of
the early twentieth century. The stereotypes she addresses may seem out
of place, but the humor and liveliness
of her writing are still current.
• Nisa: The Life and Words of a !Kung
Woman by Marjorie Shostak (
Harvard University Press, 2000)
A popular read for first-year students,
in which an African woman tells the
story of her life. The author speaks
from a feminist perspective. As this
is common in anthropology, that can
become part of the discussion.
• The Red Riviera by Kristin Ghodsee
(Duke University Press, 2005)
A recent ethnography that describes
how young women make their living in the modern tourist industry in
Bulgaria. Ghodsee has another book
about Muslims in Bulgaria.
• Communities of the Converted: Ukrainians and Global Evangelism by Catherine Wanner (Cornell University
Press, 2007)
History and stories of Baptists who
lived in hiding under the Soviet
Union and now maintain their evangelical faith in post-Soviet Ukraine. A
great discussion of conversion mixed
with stories from our brothers and
sisters in the Ukraine.
Mongolians With Cell Phones
It’s easy to find “traditional” pictures of
rural Masai, Yanomamo, or Mongolian
Kazakhs that depict their embroidered
costumes, felted houses on the steppe,
and beautiful folk songs. However, while
living with Meruert, I saw that even rural
teens in Mongolia wear trendy jackets and
sneakers, carry cell phones, and dream of
attending college to become teachers or
businessmen. Communities are always
more complex than they first appear, and
anthropology can bring some of that complexity to your homeschool curriculum.
Learning about culture gives our teens
perspective about both our communities
and those that are far away. Whether next
door or as far as Mongolia, anthropology
• Ancestral Lines: The Maisin of Papua
New Guinea and the Fate of the Rainforest by John Barker (University of
Toronto Press, 2007).
Frequently used in introductory
classes, this book describes how the
Maisin people create and exchange
tapa cloth in light of global changes
in their environment. A good all-around ethnography.
• Write These Laws on Your Children:
Inside the World of Conservative
Christian Homeschooling by Robert
Kunzman (Beacon Press, 2010)
This author has interviewed and
written about homeschooling families from across the U.S.; his stories
could provide great discussion topics
as well as comparison to stories from
other countries. How does he represent us? How would you write about
your homeschool community?
• My Freshman Year: What a Professor
Learned by Becoming a Student by
Rebekah Nation (Penguin, 2006)
This anthropologist lived with college
freshmen for a year while studying
the modern university experience
in the United States. Occasionally
dry, but great discussion material for
families who will soon have children
entering college.
encourages us form relationships with
people like Meruert, learning and sharing
about our studies, faith, families, and our
hopes and dreams that stretch from this
life into the next one.
Celia Emmelhainz has a master’s degree
in cultural anthropology from Texas
A&M University, where she studied migration and missionaries among the
Kazakhs of Central Asia. A homeschool
graduate, Emmelhainz now works in
Central Asia as an academic librarian
and is preparing articles based on her
travels in Mongolia and Kazakhstan.
celia.emmelhainz@gmail.com
