Emotions in the field : the psychology and anthropology of fieldwork experience / edited by James Davies and Dimitrina Spencer.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Davies, James (James Peter)

Spencer, Dimitrina.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Ethnology--Fieldwork--Psychological aspects.

Ethnology.

Emotions--Anthropological aspects.

Emotions.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (289 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Stanford, Calif. : Stanford University Press, 2010.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

As emotion is often linked with irrationality, it's no surprise researchers tend to underreport the emotions they experience in the field. However, denying emotion altogether doesn't necessarily lead to better research. Methods cannot function independently from the personalities wielding them, and it's time we questioned the tendency to underplay the scientific, personal, and political consequences of the emotional dimensions of fieldwork. This book explores the idea that emotion is not antithetical to thought or reason, but is instead an untapped source of insight that can complement more traditional methods of anthropological research. With a new, re-humanized methodological framework, this book shows how certain reactions and experiences consistently evoked in fieldwork, when treated with the intellectual rigor empirical work demands, can be translated into meaningful data. Emotions in the Field brings to mainstream anthropological awareness not only the viability and necessity of this neglected realm of research, but also its fresh and thoughtful guiding principles.

Contents:

Front matter

Contents

Acknowledgments

Contributors

Introduction Emotions in the Field

1. From Anxiety to Method in Anthropological Fieldwork

2. “At the Heart of the Discipline”

3. Disorientation, Dissonance, and Altered Perception in the Field

4. Using Emotion as a Form of Knowledge in a Psychiatric Fieldwork Setting

5. Hating Israel in the Field

6. Tian’anmen in Yunnan

7. Emotional Engagements

8. Emotional Topographies

9. What Counts as Data?

10. Ascetic Practice and Participant Observation, or, the Gift of Doubt in Field Experience

Index

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9780804774260

0804774269

OCLC:

644130332