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The tradition of intensive fieldwork by a single anthropologist in one area has been challenged by new emphasis on studying historical patterns, wider regions, and global networks. Some anthropologists have started their careers from the new vantage point, amidst a chorus of claims for innovative methodologies. Others have lived through these changes of perspective and are able to reflect on them, while re-evaluating the place of fieldwork within the broader aims of general anthropology. This book explores these transformations of world view and approach as they have been experienced by anthropological colleagues, a number of whom began their work very much in the earlier tradition. They cover experiences of field research in Africa, Papua New Guinea, South America, Central and South Asia, Europe, the Middle East, Indonesia, Japan and China. Constant through the chapters is a distinctively qualitative empirical approach, once associated with the village but now being developed in relation to large-scale or dispersed communities.
"... breaks important ground ... the book brings together experienced veterans of the field encounter for a thoughtful discussion of the nature of anthropological research." · Journal of Anthropological Research
“This book offers a unique insight into the influence of one of the discipline’s most important theorists. James and Allen are thoughtful editors…their respect produces the best form of criticism in fourteen essays by British, and other European anthropologists … This is intriguing and stimulating reading … Mauss’s work receives careful attention in this book which is helpful, incisive, and broadly significant to anthropology." · JRAI
Chapter 1. Fieldwork and the Passage of Time
P. Dresch and W. James
Chapter 2. Indians and Cowboys: Two Field Experiences
P. Rivière
Chapter 3. A View from Afar: Memories of New Guinea Highland Warfare
M. O'Hanlon
Chapter 4. Beyond the First Encounter: Transformations of "the Field" in North East Africa
W. James
Chapter 5. Templates, Evocations, and the Long-Term Fieldworker
D. Parkin
Chapter 6. Wilderness of Mirrors: Truth and Vulnerability in Middle Eastern Fieldwork
P. Dresch
Chapter 7. Serendipity: Reflections on Fieldwork in China
F. Pieke
Chapter 8. Fieldwork and Reflexivity: Thoughts from the Anthropology of Japan
R. Goodman
Chapter 9. Reflections of Life Crisis: Distancing the Personal
L. Matsunaga
Chapter 10. Views of Jain History
M. Banks
Chapter 11. The Ethnomusicologist in the Wilderness
H. la Rue
Chapter 12. Trying to Get There: Approaches to Indonesia
R. H. Barnes
Chapter 13. The Field and the Desk: Choices and Linkages
N. J. Allen†
Epilogue: Fieldwork Unfolding
D. Parkin
Notes on contributors
Bibliography
Index