Describe fieldwork tradition in Anthropology.

 Fieldwork tradition in Anthropology:

Anthropology is popularly known as a “field science”. This is because in its study of humans, both socially and biologically, it depends on authenticating its data from real experiences and knowledge.  This reality is captured not by suppositions and theories but by gathering first-hand knowledge on it.

This is where fieldwork as an approach of study comes in. This module will discuss the relevance of fieldwork and its tradition in anthropology and put forward how, it as a methodology since its inception and evolution has played an important role in the anthropological study.

Concept of Fieldwork: Fieldwork is central to the inquiry of anthropology. It can be said to have formed the foundation of the discipline.

The famous anthropologist, Margaret Mead notes: “We still have no way to make an anthropologist except by sending him into the field: this contact with living material is our distinguishing mark” Traditionally the word “field” indicates the area where the members of the group to be researched by the investigator, live in.

However today, the “field” may also be the internet, a museum, a school, a library, a hospital, a lab, a market, an urban eating joint, a virtual space etc. The “field” becomes the readymade laboratory for the researcher. Fieldwork is an investigation in anthropology where the researcher stays in or visits the place of investigation for long periods of time, not less than a year, receives firsthand experience and collects data. 

Powdermaker defines fieldwork as “the study of people and of their culture in their natural habitat. Anthropological fieldwork has been characterised by the prolonged residence of the investigator, his participation in and observation of the society, and his attempt to understand the inside view of the native people and to achieve the holistic view of a social scientist”.

Others like Luhrmann points out that, “Anthropology is the naturalist’s trade: you sit and watch and learn from the species in its natural environment” Fieldwork is equally important to the socio-cultural anthropologists, the physical anthropologists and archaeological anthropologists. It is one methodology they follow in their distinct branches throughout their academic lifetime due to the remarkable awareness it provides.

Anthropologists depend on fieldwork as their ultimate source of gathering valid data. It is because as Srivastava puts it,”compared to the other methods, fieldwork yields a lot of data about the lifestyles of people and the meaning they attribute to their actions.

Fieldwork also teaches the distinction between ‘what people think’, ‘what people say’, ‘what people do, and ‘what people say they ought to have done” Fieldwork is a kind of characteristic custom, a procedure that assists anthropologists in the inquiry of human life. It offers a huge level of flexibility to the fieldworker as she/he can modify approaches and techniques of investigation and collection of data, create and add newer processes and formulate “on-the-spot strategies to come to grips with unforeseen challenges of fieldwork”

History of Fieldwork in Anthropology Anthropology today may hold a strong position in fieldwork expertise. But this was not always the case. When anthropology began as a valid discipline, its precursors though very much interested in knowing about how people lived all over the world, were however not too keen to go out and investigate on their own. 

These European scholars of the nineteenth century rather preferred to be dependent on the inquiries made by missionaries, voyagers, traders, administrators, etc. who were based locally in their places of interest, mostly colonies. Such scholars were generally known as armchair anthropologists.

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