The Field Anthropologist

Paper Summary:

This paper reviews the history of ethnographic field research methodology used by anthropologists, from interviewing travelers to modern immersion into the culture.. The paper points out that B. Mallinowski and E. E. Evans-Pritchard felt that role of the anthropologist is not as a passive observer, detached from the culture which is being studied. Rather, they believed that the field anthropologist should be an active participant whose sole task is to understand the group by becoming part of it. Modern anthropologists, the paper relates, need to engage with the culture they are studying, sometimes even to immerse themselves within it at the temporary cost of their own identity in order to fully experience and understand the culture of the 'other'.

From the Paper:

"However Oakley's, and in fact any anthropologist's, observation and participation within any culture carries the risk of influencing the behavior of the people are studying, resulting in an artificial vision of their world. In "Anthropology Today", Paul (1953) wrote that the researcher's social role in the field was a determining factor in the information that would be gathered. This is where contemporary researchers seemed to have learned from Malinowski and early anthropologists."

Sample of Sources Used:

• 'The Case for Fieldwork by Officials'. Glynn Cochrane, Man, New Series, Vol. 6, No. 2. (Jun., 1971), pp. 279-284.
• Evans-Pritchard, E. E. (1966). The Scope of the Subject 'Social Anthropology and Other Essays.' New York: Free Press.
• Malinowski, B. (1922) "Argonauts of the Western Pacific", Dutton 1961 edition, p. 25.
• Mair, L. (1965) "An Introduction to Social Anthropology", Oxford: Clarenden Press. 1970 edition, p.25.
• Nash, D and Wintrob, R.Current Anthropology, Vol. 13, No. 5. (Dec., 1972), pp. 527-542.

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