This project involves the training of graduate students in cultural anthropology at the University of Michigan. This is one of two graduate programs funded in a new competition for support for ethnographic research training. The program will use the funds to support the methodological training of cultural anthropology students before their critical dissertation fieldwork. These training activities will be suited to the individual student's needs, in research training with a faculty mentor or as pilot research to prepare for future dissertation fieldwork. This research training is important in order to maintain and develop the "state-of-the-art" of cultural anthropology's ethnographic research methods. The projects will upgrade the methodological training of cultural anthropologists, which will maintain the intellectual quality of this research area.