Dispatches from the Field: Neophyte Ethnographers in a Changing World

by Andrew M. Gardner, David M. Hoffman

Penned by advanced graduate students amidst their dissertation fieldwork, these provocative essays capture the challenges and intricacies of that anthropological rite of passage. The collection s authors frankly portray the mistakes they made in the field, their struggle to analyze the events unfolding before their eyes, the psychological and emotional frustration seemingly endemic to "doing" ethnography, and the ethical complexities of researching living people. The authors present these essays not as models of ideal fieldwork or as a series of lessons about how to overcome potential hurdles one faces in the field, but rather as a window into the complexities of "being" an ethnographer in the contemporary world. Against a backdrop of subject populations increasingly informed about global relations of power and, more specifically, informed about the topography of American imperialism, these humanistic essays vividly reflect recent shifts in both the focus and methods of anthropological research, as well as the dilemmas underlying the construction of anthropological knowledge. They are meant to spark discussion and debate. While tailored to an audience relatively new to ethnographic fieldwork (and intended as a teaching tool), this collection should appeal to anthropologists and ethnographers at all points in their career. Titles of related interest also from Waveland Anderson, Around the World in 30 Life as a Cultural Anthropologist (ISBN 9781577660576); Anderson, First The Misadventures of an Anthropologist (ISBN 9780881334913); Barley, The Innocent Notes from a Mud Hut (ISBN 9781577661566); Bohannan-van der Elst, Asking and Ethnography as Personal Adaptation (ISBN 9780881339871); DeVita, Stumbling toward Anthropologists at Work (ISBN 9781577661252); and Lenkeit, High Heels and Bound And Other Essays on Everyday Anthropology, Second Edition (ISBN 9781478637684).

Genres: Ethnography, Anthropology

Paperback

Published April 14, 2006

Reviews

[Repa Kustipia]

Buku ini isinya esai-esai yang memang bukan tentang teori dan data empiris yang dirinci seperti tulisan para antropolog dalam disertasi doktoral tersebut. Tapi buku ini berisi tentang pengalaman seperti kesulitan melakukan kerja lapangan ketika melakukan studi etnografi.

Dalam pengertian itu, mereka hampir tidak memberikan sesuatu yang baru, karena literatur antropologi berkembang dengan buku-buku tebal tentang kesulitan yang dihadapi antropolog di lapangan.

Singkatnya, sebagian besar esai antropologis tentang kesulitan kerja lapangan, memiliki hal retrospektif yang halus bahwa masalah yang dihadapi di lapangan dijelaskan, dikemas dengan rapi, dan kemudian diselesaikan dengan cepat.

Buku ini bisa disebut "behind the scene" kerjaan antropolog selama ngambil data atau melakukan penelitian, dimana pengalaman antar penulis juga bisa menjadi referensi tambahan dan bisa menjadi pembelajaran.