Anthropological Practice Fieldwork and the Ethnographic Method

Anthropologists are increasingly pressured to formulate field methods for teaching. Unlike many hypothesis-driven ethnographic texts, this book is designed with the specific needs of the anthropology student in mind, and with particular emphasis on the core anthropological method: long term participant observation. Anthropological Practiceexplores fieldwork experiences unique to anthropology, and provides the context by which to explain and develop its practice-based and open-ended methodology. It draws on dialogues with twenty established and younger anthropologists whose fieldwork spans the 1960s to the present day, taking place in locations as diverse as Europe, India, Malaysia, Indonesia, Africa, Iran, Afghanistan and South America. Revealing first-hand and heretofore unrecorded aspects of fieldwork, Anthropological Practiceprovides critical, systematic ways to enhance anthropological and alternative knowledge. It is an essential text for anthropology students and researchers, and for all those in disciplines concerned with ethnography. Interviewees include: Paul Clough, Roy Gigengack, Louise de la Gorgendiere, Narmala Halstead, Suzette Heald, Michael Herzfeld, Signe Howell, Felicia Hughes-Freeland, Marek Kaminski, Margaret Kenna, Malcolm Mcleod, Brian Morris, Helene Neveu, Akira Okazaki, Joanna Overing, Jonathan Parry, Mohammad Talib, Nancy Tapper/Lindisfarne, Roy Willis, Sue Wright, Helena Wulff, Joseba Zulaika.

Judith Okely (MA, D.Phil Oxford) is Emeritus Professor of Social Anthropology, Hull University and Honorary Research Associate, School of Anthropology, Oxford University. Her books include The Traveller Gypsies, Simone de Beauvoir: a Re-Reading, Own or Other Culture, co-edited volumes and many articles. She has done fieldwork in Western Ireland, England and France (Ethnos 2001). In 2011 she was awarded the seal of Pilsen City, and an honorary medal of West Bohemia University, Czech Republic. She was selected as a Pioneer of Qualitative Social Research, ESDA UK.

1. Theoretical Overview: Holism not Hypothesis 2. Locations, Units and Exchange 3. Choice and Change of Topic 4. Participant Observation: Context and Practice 5. Participant Observation: Examples and Bodily knowledge 6. Specificities: the Fieldworker and key Associates 7. Breakthroughs 8. Recording, Writing Down, Visual records 9. Analysis, Writing up, Publication.