Ethnographers In The Field : The Psychology of Research (2nd Edition)

A study of how doing field research submerged in a different culture impacts one's sense of identity. "Wengle documents convincingly, and with a great deal of sensitivity to and empathy for his informants, what fieldworking ethnographers undergo while anthropologizing. ... If one wants to understand what kind of data ethnographers generate, what kind of facts they notice, what kinds of events they record (rather than others that they could have generated, noticed or recorded, but did not) reading Wengle's book is indispensable. It goes a long way toward doing away with the mystique of fiel Contents 8 Preface 10 Prologue 16 Part I: Understanding Fieldwork 26 1. On Death and Fieldwork 28 2. Fighting Back: Identity Maintenance in the Field 45 Part II: Plain Old Everyday Fieldwork 64 3. The Typical Field Experience 66 Part III: Fieldwork as a Study in Extremes 110 4. A South American Odyssey 112 5. Trauma in the Field: Reflections on Malinowski's Fieldwork 132 6. Death and Rebirth in Fieldwork: An Archetypal Case 155 Part IV: Conclusion 176 7. Notes and Fragments 178 Appendix: Sample Questionnaire 195 Notes 198 References 208 Index 218 Wengle documents what fieldworking ethnographers undergo; what kind of data ethnographers generate, what kind of facts they notice, what kinds of events they record. The anonymity of Wengle's informants let them speak bluntly about their experiences.... includingt the downside of ethnography -self-doubt, depression, and private coping strategies.