PhD fieldwork

[flats]

Here's a question for the social anthropologists of this community

Comments

[idealforcolors]

I think being totally positive about it might be a bit unrealistic! I don't know anything about PhD fieldwork, of course, but when I spent a semester in Russia doing mini-undergrad-pseudo-fieldwork, I went in thinking it was going to be utterly eye-opening and amazing and exciting, and spent the first month and a half being horribly homesick and shy and wanting my LIFE back. I can imagine that if you went for two years and hadn't even had doubts that it would be that hard, and hadn't really seriously considered whether and how you could get through the hard times, you might give up. And I think it's ok to not be the sort of person who gets on fabulously with everyone, there's a different set of social skills fieldwork requires that you improve at over time

[librisia]

You don't need to go abroad to do fieldwork. Much of contemporary anthropology involves talking to people from other cultures who have immigrated to the anthropologst's own country. This kind of anthro may not be highly thought of at your school.

You might have to do a month or two in the culture of origin, but that's not like the experiences your profs are discussing. The heyday of the kind of anthropology they were doing is past. Furthermore, there are some in the discipline who consider that kind of anthropological practice imperialistic and intrusive.

I would read, _Never in Anger_ by Jean Briggs (you may already have read it if you're interested in cultures of the Arctic).

[flats]

You sure the time of studying a culture other than one's own has gone? Because that's all my lecturers are doing. I sensationalise the exotic side of their fieldwork stories simply to play off the contrast with my cowardice; the work they're producing is culturally sensitive, activist where required, and very aware of post-colonial structures of power. One'd have to be extremely culturally relativist to dismiss all such practice as imperialist - it'd be in effect saying Europeans can't study cultures other than their own, and seeing cultural boundaries as fixed and absolute (quite contrary to world systems theory). Isn't the whole point of anthropology that one /can/ come to understand how another person in another society thinks? And that dynamics of power and oppression aren't simple, uniform and top-down

[deleonjh]

There is also the stigma of Europe not being Other enough. Notice, for example, that quite a lot of European work is being done on immigrants, rural folk, and the working class (i.e., people Other than white and/or middle class). Somewhat related to the tendency for Africanist anthropologists not being black. It's changing today, of course.

[kethryvis]

Have you read any field accounts? I'm taking a class in my master's program that's about analzying fieldwork, and I have to say it's highly interesting to read these accounts from the field because we can see that the Great High And Mighty were all were scared shitless too.

I second the recommendation for Never in Anger by Jean Briggs. It is a great, great book. It's very raw in a way; you really get the feeling of how isolated she felt and her fear and anger. You might also try A Diary in the Strictest Sense by Malinowski and Tristes Tropiques (which I TOTALLY spelled wrong but you get the idea) by Levi-Strauss

[flats]

I like this idea of field accounts - cheers! I've had a series of classes on looking at people's methodologies for fieldwork, but not so much the personal side of things. (But I'm not reading any more Levi-Strauss if you paid me!)

Obviously a PhD requires a relevant supervisor, and the Arctic not being a focus of mainstream anthropology, there are very few departments to choose from. UK it's Cambridge, there's a German contingent, the Smithsonian I think (whatever US university's attached to that for the anth)... Fears of feeling isolated when in the taiga would be compounded a thousand-fold by the culture-shock of going to the US and being surrounded by, well, Americans, who do this anthropology rather differently and think these funny things about guns and abortion etc!

[kethryvis]

Oh I hear you on Levi-Strauss ;) I'm not his biggest fan, but TT is really quite enjoyable. His structuralism comes through still, but it's still a good and fairly quick read. So don't count him out JUST yet ;) Briggs' book especially was a big help to me when I first started studying anthropology and was intimidated by fieldwork

[thorny_rose]

*contemplating the same thing, having similar concerns and questions* Specially since I'm feeling a little out of the loop in the world of academia.

Right now I'm on a sort of sabbatical (teaching English, traveling, experiencing life of a different kind) after plowing through 16 years of schooling (Mom said "Why?", I said "Why not?"), but finding myself missing deadlines, essays and research. It's sick, ain't it? But I am aiming to eventually earn a PhD in anthropology, possibly related to social work because I'm interested in actually doing something to help the general public (middle class).

[ohwaitnevermind]

Same problem here, as well. I recently came back from a field school in South America and am pretty discouraged by the lonliness and frequent illness I faced there. I loved the overall experience but certainly could have done without the other stuff! I'm also interested in reindeer herders (currently reading The Reindeer People by Piers Vitebsky), but my geographical focus is in a tropical climate, so I hope I can handle the heat there. And my teachers, of course, all have plenty of near-death experiences of their own. Am I not cut out for PhD research in my area of interest or just attuned to the possible pitfalls? I don't know!