Field work is really the unique strategy that
anthropologists use to understand the world.
We hang out with people.
We try to understand their
lives from the inside.
We do participant observation.
We take careful notes.
We listen.
And we try to analyze the
patterns of people's lives.
It's really central to becoming anthropologists,
this practice of field work and it's part
of our rite of passage in many
ways of doing extensive field work.
So I've written the field work journal
to give students an opportunity
to explore the experience of field work itself.
In it there are a series of exercises related
to every chapter that gives students a chance
to practice going out, meeting new
people, crossing cultural barriers,
taking careful notes, listening,
thinking deeply about what they're seeing.
And so I'm hoping that in the
process, students will get a sense
of what it's like to be an anthropologist.
Students will hone their own skills
of observation and analysis in order
that they can learn to see
the world more clearly.
They can begin to see themselves
in the world more clearly.
They can live more consciously, more awake
about the things that are going on around them.
And they can have the tools that are necessary
to really engage the world
and make a difference.
