Centralizing Fieldwork: Critical Perspectives from Primatology, Biological and Social Anthropology

Description

Fieldwork is a central method of research throughout anthropology, a much-valued, much-vaunted mode of generating information. But its nature and process have been seriously understudied in biological anthropology and primatology. This book is the first ever comparative investigation, across primatology, biological anthropology, and social anthropology, to look critically at this key research practice. It is also an innovative way to further the comparative project within a broadly conceived anthropology, because it does not focus on common theory but on a common method. The questions asked by contributors are: what in the pursuit of fieldwork is common to all three disciplines, what is unique to each, how much is contingent, how much necessary? Can we generate well-grounded cross-disciplinary generalizations about this mutual research method, and are there are any telling differences? Co-edited by a social anthropologist and a primatologist, the book includes a list of distinguished and well-established contributors from primatology and biological anthropology. Contents List of Figures and Tables Acknowledgements 1. Centralizing Fieldwork 2. The Dos and Don’ts of Fieldwork 3. The Anthropologist as a Primatologist 4. Primate Fieldwork and its Human Contexts in Southern Madagascar 5. Problem Animals or Problem People? 6. Ecological Anthropology and Primatology 7. Lost in Translation 3. The Anthropologist as a Primatologist: Mental Journeys of a Fieldworker 8. Measuring Meaning and Understanding Biological Anthropology Fieldwork 9. Fieldwork as Research Process and Community Engagement 10. Framing the Quantitative within the Qualitative 11. Considerations on Field Methods Used to Assess Nonhuman Primate Feeding Behaviour and Human Food Intake in Terms of Nutritional Requirements 12. Anthropobiological Surveys in the Field 13. Field Schools in Central America 14. The Narrator’s Stance 15. Natural Homes 16. Popularizing Fieldwork Notes on Contributors Index