THE SECRET LIVES OF ANTHROPOLOGISTS This book addresses the difficult conditions researchers may face in the field and provides lessons in how to navigate the various social, political, economic, health, and environmental challenges involved in fieldwork. It also sheds important light on aspects often considered “secret” or taboo. From anthropologists just starting out to those with over forty years in the field, these researchers offer the benefit of their experience conducting research in diverse cultures around the world. The contributions combine engaging personal narrative with consideration of theory and methods. The volume emphasizes how being adaptable, and aware, of the many risks and rewards of ethnographic research can help foster success in quant- itative and qualitative data collection. This is a valuable resource for students of anthropological methods and those about to embark on fieldwork for the first time. Bonnie L. Hewlett is a Clinical Assistant Professor in the Department of Anthro- pology at Washington State University, Vancouver. THE SECRET LIVES OF ANTHROPOLOGISTS Lessons from the Field Edited by Bonnie L. Hewlett First published 2020 by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN and by Routledge 52 Vanderbilt Avenue, New York, NY 10017 Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business © 2020 selection and editorial matter, Bonnie L. Hewlett; individual chapters, the contributors The right of Bonnie L. Hewlett to be identified as the author of the editorial matter, and of the authors for their individual chapters, has been asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilized in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe. British Library Cataloguing-i n-Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging- in-Publication Data Names: Hewitt, Bonnie L., editor. Title: The secret lives of anthropologists: lessons from the field / edited by Bonnie L. Hewitt. Description: Abingdon, Oxon; New York, NY: Routledge, 2020. | Includes bibliographical references and index. Identifiers: LCCN 2019029002 | ISBN 9781138501850 (hardback) | ISBN 9781138501867 (paperback) | ISBN 9781315144580 (ebook) Subjects: LCSH: Anthropology–Fieldwork. | Ethnology–Fieldwork. | Anthropological ethics. Classification: LCC GN34.3.F53 S43 2020 | DDC 301.072/3–dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019029002 ISBN: 978-1-138-50185-0 (hbk) ISBN: 978-1-138-50186-7 (pbk) ISBN: 978-1-315-14458-0 (ebk) Typeset in Times New Roman by Wearset Ltd, Boldon, Tyne and Wear DEDICATION To those around the world who welcome us into their homes, families, and hearts. It is from them we learn how to be anthropologists, and along the way discover the true joy of the field. CONTENTS List of illustrations x Notes on contributors xii Acknowledgements xvii Introduction: pulling back the curtain 1 Bonnie L. Hewlett PART I Paths into the field 21 1 Learning fields 23 Vishvajit Pandya 2 Stumbling around the sacred: some personal observations 37 Benjamin Grant Purzycki 3 From the Orinoco to Sorority Row: searching for a field site as an evolutionary anthropologist 54 Nicole Hess PART II Gendered relations and other challenges in the field 73 4 Doing ethnomusicological research as a white woman in Cameroon and the Central African Republic 75 Susanne Fürniss viii Contents 5 A boss, a mother, a red antelope, and all the things in between 91 Sylvie Le Bomin 6 Culturally appropriate solutions to fieldwork challenges among Mbendjele BaYaka hunter- gatherers of the Congo Basin 112 Daša Bombjaková PART III The observer and the observed: the metamorphosis of research, methods, and the researcher 133 7 My life in the school of hard knocks: how an aspiring anthropologist became a white Cameroonian 135 Robert Moïse 8 Spā߀min, ethnographers, and mixed methods 161 Robert J. Quinlan 9 Mothering in the field: participant observation of cultural transmission 182 Victoria Reyes-G arcía 10 The quiet joy of fieldworkers in the Kalahari 204 Akira Takada PART IV Dangerous fields 219 11 The origins of Surviving Fieldwork 221 Nancy Howell 12 When all hell breaks loose: conducting ethnographic fieldwork amid gunplay, catastrophe, and mayhem 235 J. Christopher Kovats- Bernat PART V Ethics, advocacy, and other everyday moral dilemmas of research 255 13 Surviving Agta fieldwork 257 Thomas N. Headland, with Janet D. Headland Contents ix 14 Do you consent to participate in this research study? 279 Paul Verdu 15 Who owns poop? And other ethical dilemmas facing an anthropologist who works at the interface of biological research and indigenous rights 299 Alyssa N. Crittenden 16 But what if the “field” is a mother–baby behavioural sleep laboratory? How it happened, what it is like; the good, the fantastic, and the downright ugly 322 James J. McKenna Appendix: regional packing list and other favourite items in the field 342 Index 348