Posts made in December, 2016


‘So, what are your results?’ ‘Ask us again in about, oh, three to five years.’ Thus runs an imaginary, but typical, discussion during fieldwork. Fieldwork is part of a slow process. It takes time, often slowed further by issues of funding and, well, life. But even if Julia and I had all the funding we could wish for, and no other obligations or commitments, we’d still be telling people to give us a few years. That’s a slightly...

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Mad fieldwork skills


Posted By on Dec 5, 2016

There is one aspect of anthropological fieldwork which I do not think I have ever seen discussed. That is fieldwork skills. By this, I do not mean, however, research skills or interview techniques. You may or may not get taught them as an anthropology student. (You should get taught them, of course, but ‘Ought’ and ‘Is’ aren’t the same thing.) Nor am I talking about languages, or learning to take acceptable videos or photos. No, what...

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