Читать книгу Introducing Anthropology - Laura Pountney - Страница 77

Your college or university is funding you to travel to South America and conduct anthropological fieldwork. You are going to visit people called the Yanomamö, who live in the rainforest of Venezuela. Their village has no electricity, no mobile phones and no modern technology. The nearest town with a hospital, shops and electricity is 200 miles away. The only way you can reach this community is by boat, and the journey takes five days from the nearest town. You are travelling on your own and you have to stay in the village for a period of three months and conduct a participant study that asks: ‘What is the Yanomamö relationship with nature?’

Plan your journey and explain the issues that you might encounter before, during and after your fieldwork. Consider these practical, ethical and theoretical issues:

 Before the journey: What do I need to take with me? Food? Medicine? Money? How to get there? Planning the journey?

 During the stay at this village: How do I communicate? How do I find relevant information? What if I make a mistake? How do I record the information?

 After the journey: How do I leave the community? How do I write the report? What about my own views and beliefs? How do I represent this community?