Narratives, Fieldwork, and the Interaction between an Anthropologist and the “Others”

Abstract

        Fieldwork for anthropologists is considered of great significance, as to help understand the world of others. Meanwhile, the “field” itself is seen as space where anthropologists are encouraged to contemplate and reflect on their “selves”. Doing fieldwork certainly encounters different cultures and stimulates them to transform such differences in an aim to enter the community. The field is not only a physical space but encompasses social relations shaped by individuals or cultural groups that have impacted to the fields at varying degrees and to the newcomers (anthropologists). Anthropologists are not merely welcome as visitors, they are also subject to scrutiny, interpretation, exploitation, and tests of patience by the people within the field. Another challenge is that—the field is space of the contestation of multiple narratives from different perspectives emerging from both anthropologists and people who are studied. No one can monopolise telling any story with perfection. Anthropologists realise that limit, but still try to repeat that they are retelling stories of the others.