Doing Fieldwork
Warnings and Advice
9780226869513
Doing Fieldwork
Warnings and Advice
Recounting her own field experiences in Japanese-American relocation centers during World War II and later in American Indian communities, Rosalie H. Wax offers advice to help the beginning field worker anticipate and confront the exigencies and accidents of fieldwork with good nature, fortitude, and common sense. Doing Fieldwork is a useful book in many respects: as a guide to participant observation and ethnographic fieldwork; as an analysis of the theoretical presuppositions and history of fieldwork; as a discussion of contemporary issues in social science research; and simply as an entertaining and dramatic story.
406 pages | 5-1/2 x 8-1/2 | © 1971
Anthropology: Cultural and Social Anthropology
Sociology: General Sociology
Table of Contents
Preface
Part One: Introduction
1. Theoretical Presuppositions of Fieldwork
2. The First and Most Uncomfortable Stage of Fieldwork
3. A Historical Sketch of Fieldwork
4. The Ambiguities of Fieldwork
Part Two: Fieldwork in the Japanese American Relocation Centers 1943-1945
5. Background
6. I Begin to Work
7. The Difficult Field Situation: Case Histories and Discussion
8. First Visit to Tule Lake
9. Second Visit to Tule Lake
10. The Resegregation Petition
11. Shooting, Beatings, and Murder
12. Fieldwork in a Factionalized Community
13. I Become an Antifanatic
14. The Debacle
Part Three: Fieldwork on the Thrashing Buffalo Reservation 1962-1963
15. We Decide to Study Indian Education
16. Still Looking for a Home
17. Participant Observation at the GoodHorses’
18. Life at Witkokia
19. The Scandel
20. How Does One Find and Work on a Problem?
21. Good Fieldworkers and Good Respondents
Part Four: Among the Six Friendly Tribes 1966-1967
22. A Difficult Beginning
23. The First Six Weeks
24. Distressing and Confusing Developments
25. The Opening of the Ball Park
26. The Poor Man and the Aristocrat
27. We Are Attacked
28. From Research to Conflict
29. The Confrontation
30. Comments on the Gokachi Research
31. Final Thoughts
Bibliography
Index
Part One: Introduction
1. Theoretical Presuppositions of Fieldwork
2. The First and Most Uncomfortable Stage of Fieldwork
3. A Historical Sketch of Fieldwork
4. The Ambiguities of Fieldwork
Part Two: Fieldwork in the Japanese American Relocation Centers 1943-1945
5. Background
6. I Begin to Work
7. The Difficult Field Situation: Case Histories and Discussion
8. First Visit to Tule Lake
9. Second Visit to Tule Lake
10. The Resegregation Petition
11. Shooting, Beatings, and Murder
12. Fieldwork in a Factionalized Community
13. I Become an Antifanatic
14. The Debacle
Part Three: Fieldwork on the Thrashing Buffalo Reservation 1962-1963
15. We Decide to Study Indian Education
16. Still Looking for a Home
17. Participant Observation at the GoodHorses’
18. Life at Witkokia
19. The Scandel
20. How Does One Find and Work on a Problem?
21. Good Fieldworkers and Good Respondents
Part Four: Among the Six Friendly Tribes 1966-1967
22. A Difficult Beginning
23. The First Six Weeks
24. Distressing and Confusing Developments
25. The Opening of the Ball Park
26. The Poor Man and the Aristocrat
27. We Are Attacked
28. From Research to Conflict
29. The Confrontation
30. Comments on the Gokachi Research
31. Final Thoughts
Bibliography
Index