Function

• As the scientific study of humanity, anthropology focuses on understanding the social, cultural and physical dimensions of human life. Anthropological researchers pay particular attention to culture, defined as the shared norms, values, ways and customs of a given society. Fieldwork in anthropology allows researchers to observe the cultures of different societies and groups firsthand in their natural settings rather than in the controlled laboratory environment of other scientific studies.
  
  

Identification

• Anthropologists use the term ethnography to define field research that describes in rich detail the daily life, customs, rituals, beliefs and social interactions of the societies being observed. Researchers such as Margaret Mead used ethnographic fieldwork to study other groups and societies. Mead, for example, lived among the people of Samoa in the 1920s to understand their way of life.
  
  

Benefits

• Fieldwork in anthropology produces rich, descriptive data about the daily lives of societies, organizations, cultures and subcultures. Field researchers gather this information through interviews, audio recordings and extensive observation, during which they take meticulous field notes. Many researchers take field notes throughout the day, transcribing them at night. Through extensive observation and immersing themselves in the settings they observe, anthropologists learn the society's customs, beliefs, rituals and even languages. Other types of social science research, such as surveys and statistical data analyses, cannot generate such information.
  
  

History

• Early anthropologists conducted fieldwork in isolated societies about which people had little knowledge or information. These researchers observed these cultures in person, often for extended periods of time, to provide a full description of the society and its culture. Often, researchers immersed themselves in the life of the culture they studied by participating in the daily life of the society--a practice known as participant observation. During the 1930s, for example, author George Orwell published "Down and Out in Paris and London," an account of life among the homeless of these cities. To write this work, Orwell lived among the homeless, spending nights and shelters and befriending other homeless men.
  
  

Time Frame

• Because researchers want to fully describe other societies, cultures and organizations, as well as describe how they respond to seasonal and other changes, fieldwork in anthropology is a time-intensive task. Anthropologists often spend a year or more conducting fieldwork; some researchers visit the same societies multiple times over a period of many years.
  
  

Considerations

• The benefits and insights aside, there are important considerations and reservations about anthropological fieldwork. One major consideration is the extent to which researchers, by their presence as observers, affect or alter the life of the societies and cultures they observe. The overlapping nature of data collection and analysis in fieldwork raises the additional question of the researcher's own cultural background and biases, and how they impact her perception of the people and events being studied. When anthropological researchers fail to separate their own biases from their studies, they risk presenting the cultures and societies they study in a denigrating manner.