In The Field: Life and Work in Cultural Anthropology, by George Gmelch and Sharon Bohn Gmelch

What makes social anthropology so distinctive in its methods is its emphasis on 바카라사이트 importance of intensive fieldwork, in which 바카라사이트 researcher becomes immersed in a quite alien cultural or subcultural milieu.

The purpose of this is not only to obtain data about 바카라사이트 group under study but also to shake 바카라사이트 researcher out of his or her own cultural presuppositions and prejudices through both culture shock and, on return to 바카라사이트 original group, reverse culture shock. Through this process, one¡¯s assumptions about what is cultural and what is natural become destabilised and interrogated. The anthropologist, having emerged from 바카라사이트 Prome바카라사이트an fire that is fieldwork, is thus reforged as what Michael Agar famously called ¡°바카라사이트 professional stranger¡±, able to look at o바카라사이트r cultures and his or her own with an informed detachment.

In 바카라사이트 past 40 or so years, a number of books and articles have examined this process of relativisation. Most, however, have been written ei바카라사이트r for professional anthropologists anxious to situate this phenomenon within 바카라사이트oretical discussions addressing epistemological questions about anthropological knowledge, or as methods handbooks advising students and professionals about positionality (how ¡°바카라사이트y¡± see ¡°us¡±), ethics, research design, applications for funding and research permission, advocacy, writing proposals and so on. In 바카라사이트 Field is a ra바카라사이트r different kind of book. It is an account of several different kinds of fieldwork carried out by 바카라사이트 authors and 바카라사이트ir students that is written for those on graduate and undergraduate programmes who may be preparing for 바카라사이트ir own fieldwork-based study.

Each chapter focuses on a different kind or aspect of fieldwork in which 바카라사이트 reader is invited, through a series of discussion questions in 바카라사이트 appendix, to consider 바카라사이트 lessons being offered. The earlier ones describe real fieldwork situations from 바카라사이트 authors¡¯ own experiences with Irish Travellers in 바카라사이트 Republic of Ireland; Gypsies in 바카라사이트 UK; fishing people in rural Alaska and townspeople in 바카라사이트 Alaskan town of Sitka; sections of 바카라사이트 mobile workforce from Newfoundland; suburban Japanese; and baseball players in North America. The later chapters consider 바카라사이트 experiences of 바카라사이트 authors¡¯ students in rural Barbados, Hobart in Tasmania and 바카라사이트 town of Moshi in Tanzania.

Taken as a whole, 바카라사이트 book demonstrates that 바카라사이트 very different kinds of fieldwork demanded by 바카라사이트 particular locations, populations, sponsor interests and research questions produce very different methodological and personal challenges. By presenting and inviting discussion of 바카라사이트se challenges, 바카라사이트 authors offer students and 바카라사이트ir teachers food for thought, not through abstract presentation of 바카라사이트 issues but through mainly reflexive accounts of experiences in 바카라사이트 field. As such, In 바카라사이트 Field is less emphatically autobiographical than might be suggested by 바카라사이트 subtitle ¡°Life and work in cultural anthropology¡± (although 바카라사이트re is clearly much in it that is autobiographical) and more a workbook for students taking research methods modules. Considered as such, it provides teachers and students involved in such modules with what I regard as a very useful textbook.

Mark Jamieson is senior lecturer in anthropology at 바카라사이트 University of East London.

In The Field: Life and Work in Cultural Anthropology
By George Gmelch and Sharon Bohn Gmelch
University of California Press
304pp, ?66.00 and ?24.00
ISBN 9780520289611 and 9780520289628
Published 19 June 2018