Synopses & Reviews
How are ethnographic knowledge and anthropological theory created out of field experiences? Working in the Field explores emplacement and experience-centered narratives as the modes in working in places brings anthropology to life. Stewart and Strathern show how first impressions of an area carry depths of meanings which can gradually be unpacked in later analysis and how the fieldworker's memories may become blended with those of the people studied as a result of long-term engagement with them. Spanning Papua New Guinea, Taiwan, and Scotland, and Ireland, Stewart and Strathern show how fieldwork in apparently different areas can lead to unexpected comparisons and discoveries of similarities in human cross-cultural patterns of behavior.
Synopsis
How are ethnographic knowledge and anthropological theory created out of field experiences? Spanning Papua New Guinea, Taiwan, and Scotland, and Ireland, Stewart and Strathern show how fieldwork in apparently different areas can lead to unexpected comparisons and discoveries of similarities in human cross-cultural patterns of behavior.
About the Author
Pamela J. Stewart (Strathern) and Andrew J. Strathern are a research team in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Pittsburgh, USA. They have jointly published many books and articles on a wide range of topics and are currently developing a new subfield in Anthropology, i.e., Disaster Anthropology, including Climatic Change.
Table of Contents
Preface: Working in Places, Moving through Spaces
1. Prologue
2. Papua New Guinea
2. Taiwan
4. Memory
Conclusions