What is fieldwork and why is it important for anthropology?
In the early 19th century, anthropology began as an accumulation of information from various sources, in the hope to understand different cultures. Individuals such as James Frazer would gather accounts from colonists and missionaries that had ventured to exotic lands and would draw conclusions about their cultures based on thought or opinion. Lack of personal interaction with another culture by an anthropologist it is heavily scrutinized and referred to as armchair anthropology. Since Malinowski coined the term “participant observation” during the extended period he spent with the Trobrianders (1922), long-term fieldwork has become a central theme within the discipline, critical in …show more content…
It is not possible for the anthropologist to record an objective account on the emic of their informants. In other sciences, results of an experiment can be recorded numerically, leaving no room for interpretation. Yet the problem faced by anthropology is that the methodology of collecting empirical evidence through fieldwork will always be filtered through the lens of the anthropologist’s own perspective. But what implications does this cause for anthropology and does it matter? “The anthropologist’s prior experience, no less than her personality and training, is bound to shape perception in the field” (Beatty A. in Watson 1999: 78). Things such as age, gender and race are also factors which can bring variation to how information from the field is recorded. It is now accepted within the discipline that a totally non-bias perspective isn’t possible, however anthropologists have used this awareness of variation for positive reasons, bringing in their traits to help their informants to open up to them more. To give an example, during Kate Gardner’s time in Talukpur (1996), she spends most of her time amongst the women of the village. Giving her an in-depth insight into the lives of the women, an understanding of the emic that could not otherwise be achieved by the male anthropologist. This highlights how different perceptions and dispositions can be beneficial to gathering empirical data (Eriksen 1995). Watson uses the term “ethnographic competence” (1999: 5) which I think is an important factor to bear in mind when reading ethnography, under what pretences should the ethnography be understood?
Despite of its limitations fieldwork continues to develop and bring new ideas for the discipline to consider. Janet Carsten’s fieldwork in Langkawi redefined the current understanding of kinship as
In the early 19th century, anthropology began as an accumulation of information from various sources, in the hope to understand different cultures. Individuals such as James Frazer would gather accounts from colonists and missionaries that had ventured to exotic lands and would draw conclusions about their cultures based on thought or opinion. Lack of personal interaction with another culture by an anthropologist it is heavily scrutinized and referred to as armchair anthropology. Since Malinowski coined the term “participant observation” during the extended period he spent with the Trobrianders (1922), long-term fieldwork has become a central theme within the discipline, critical in …show more content…
It is not possible for the anthropologist to record an objective account on the emic of their informants. In other sciences, results of an experiment can be recorded numerically, leaving no room for interpretation. Yet the problem faced by anthropology is that the methodology of collecting empirical evidence through fieldwork will always be filtered through the lens of the anthropologist’s own perspective. But what implications does this cause for anthropology and does it matter? “The anthropologist’s prior experience, no less than her personality and training, is bound to shape perception in the field” (Beatty A. in Watson 1999: 78). Things such as age, gender and race are also factors which can bring variation to how information from the field is recorded. It is now accepted within the discipline that a totally non-bias perspective isn’t possible, however anthropologists have used this awareness of variation for positive reasons, bringing in their traits to help their informants to open up to them more. To give an example, during Kate Gardner’s time in Talukpur (1996), she spends most of her time amongst the women of the village. Giving her an in-depth insight into the lives of the women, an understanding of the emic that could not otherwise be achieved by the male anthropologist. This highlights how different perceptions and dispositions can be beneficial to gathering empirical data (Eriksen 1995). Watson uses the term “ethnographic competence” (1999: 5) which I think is an important factor to bear in mind when reading ethnography, under what pretences should the ethnography be understood?
Despite of its limitations fieldwork continues to develop and bring new ideas for the discipline to consider. Janet Carsten’s fieldwork in Langkawi redefined the current understanding of kinship as