Anthropologists in the field : cases in participant observation / edited by Lynne Hume and Jane Mulcock.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Hume, Lynne.

Mulcock, Jane.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Participant observation.

Ethnology--Fieldwork.

Ethnology--Methodology.

Anthropological ethics.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (229 p.)

Place of Publication:

New York N.Y. ; Chichester : Columbia University Press, 2004.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

All too often anthropologists and other social scientists go into the field with unrealistic expectations. Different cultural milieus are prime ground for misunderstandings, misinterpretations, and interrelational problems. This book is an excellent introduction to real-world ethnography, using familiar and not-so-familiar cultures as cases. The book covers participant observation and ethnographic interviewing, both short and long term. These methodologies are open to problems such as lack of communication, depression, hostility, danger, and moral and ethical dilemmas-problems that are usually sanitized for publication and ignored in the curriculum. Among the intriguing topics covered are sexualized and violent environments, secrecy and disclosure, multiple roles and allegiances, insider/outsider issues, and negotiating friendship and objectivity.

Contents:

Cover; Half title; Title; Copyright; Dedication; Contents; Acknowledgments; Introduction: Awkward Spaces, Productive Places; Part I: Positioned Engagements; Chapter 1. Awkward Intimacies: Prostitution, Politics, and Fieldwork in Urban Mexico; Chapter 2. Disclosure and Interaction in a Monastery; Chapter 3. Going Beyond "The West" and "The Rest": Conducting Non-Western, Non-native Ethnography in Northern Thailand; Chapter 4. Multiple Roles, Statuses, and Allegiances: Exploring the Ethnographic Process in Disability Culture; Chapter 5. "He's Not a Spy

Chapter 12. Living in Sheds: Suicide, Friendship, and Research Among the TiwiChapter 13. Performing and Constructing Research as Guesthood in the Study of Religions; Part III: Multi-Sited Engagements; Chapter 14. Not Quite at Home: Field Envy and New Age Ethnographic Dis-ease; Chapter 15. Multi-sited Transnational Ethnography and the Shifting Construction of Fieldwork; Chapter 16. Multi-sited Methodologies: "Homework" in Australia, Fiji, and Kiribati; References; List of Contributors; Index

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Includes bibliographical references (p. [235]-257) and index.

ISBN:

9780231130059

0231130058

9780231509220

0231509227

OCLC:

818855826