The Importance Of Anthropological Fieldwork

Is there a right way to do anthropological fieldwork? At its foundation, fieldwork involves developing rapport with people to acquire access to authentic and concrete knowledge pertaining to the specific culture being studied. Communication between the anthropologist and the people he or she studies is an essential component to the entire nature of fieldwork. Yet at the same time, communication is the root of many problems an anthropologist can encounter while in the field. The cultural background of the anthropologist can often contrast with the culture he or she enters during fieldwork. These differences can cause cross-cultural miscommunication between anthropologists and the people they study. Anthropologists have a variety of different

Fieldwork consists of collecting data and information about a particular culture and interacting within the society’s natural environment (Fieldwork 1). Unlike the armchair anthropologists before him, Malinowski advocated, instead of studying other peoples from the comfort of university libraries, to go into the field and live with the people he was studying, engage in their community, learn their language, eat their food, and take part in their everyday life. Malinowski promoted collecting first-hand, empirical data through fieldwork. He emphasized the importance of objective, scientific methodology in cultural anthropology. Similar to other natural sciences, Malinowski argued that anthropologists should make their exact research methods clear and strive to reduce bias. In order to achieve this, one must cut himself “off from the company of other white men, and remain in as close as contact with natives as possible” (Malinowski, 1961, 6). Malinowski looks at fieldwork through scientific lens, although this may be an accurate method, he fails to study the issues of rituals and

Bohannan believed that with a few changes and translation, anyone should be able to understand Shakespeare. She states that “human nature is pretty much the same the whole world over” (Bohannan, 1966, 1). It is a highly flexible article because it explains topics of fieldwork, as well as the idea of culture and language. Bohannan describes her fieldwork, and the difficulties she encountered, as well as the lessons she learned as she attempted to relate the story of Hamlet to the Tiv of West Africa in their language. Unlike Malinowski, Bohannan uses symbolic and interpretive anthropology in her fieldwork. This type of anthropology studies the way people understand their surroundings, as well as the understanding any cultural symbols of a particular society. Bohannan’s methods may not be as systematic and objective as Malinowski, but she is able to account for the basic concepts of anthropology, such as storytelling, morality, and