Identity and Identification in Anthropological Fieldwork

Identity and identification in Anthropological Fieldwork Archaeology and Anthropology Intellectual and cultural excitement of anthropology and ethnographic fieldwork. One of the most interesting and stimulating phases in one’s life as one enters a universe of discourse based on a different set of assumptions.

From conundrum of race and culture Anthropology and search for bounded communities in a globalised world and identification of units of study. Some thoughts on way forward.

Community, migration and social change in Diaspora spaces Kampala Uganda Dispute settlement in a mixed Indian community and the problematic of finding a ‘community’.

Berkeley California Hare Krishna Temple and renunciation of a Sindhi merchant.

The Mandal Caste and sectarian community in North London, Bolton and Gujarat and Kutch.

Migration and group formation and social change among Indians in Bristol.

Giani Shree Ratan Singh Shad 1986 (Photo Will Guy)

Rohit interviewing Giani Shree Ratan Singh Shad (Photo Will Guy) Fieldwork in Hendon and Bolton: Identity and Identification among the Leva Kanbi Patel Workers from Kutch and Kenya in the late 1970s Fieldwork in Metropolitan London as a challenging task at the outset and a search for a community and how did I find the Leva Kanbi Patels in a territorially defined locus in London.

Plural and hierarchical identities in the field encompassing class, caste, sect, gender, culture and language Interactive resolution of difference, boundaries and distinctive perception through religious ideology of moksha salvation (tension between identity of human souls on the one hand and the distinctions between human beings on the other).

Gender hierarchy and gender separation in the Mandal community as reflected in separated sitting for men and women (separate temples for men and women in India and East Africa). Gender road crossing incident.

The tension between inside and outside gender views.

Some critical fieldwork issues How do you and your subjects respond to fieldwork situations?

Community, networks and dispersed individuals. Trust and co-operation to expression of mistrust and rejection of fieldwork.

New millennium anthropology and combination of traditional and visual and virtual ethnography in contemporary fieldwork situations. Example of Murthy’s 2008 thesis on production of electronic music in London, New York and Delhi (integrating a video film in the thesis). Vital significance of fusion between real and virtual (reality of virtual as an issue) as in You Tube and Face Book, Research methods and classification of field material in both ethnographic and conceptual categories and regular submission of work in supervision

sessions for critical evaluation of progress in fieldwork.

Fieldwork in Anthropology: Some Readings David Pocock, Understanding Social Anthropology (Teach Yourself series) , 1975 Lonon: Hodder and Stoughton. David Pocock provides a most interesting narrative on his fieldwork in Gujarat. There is a great section on personal anthropology which discusses reflection on being in one's own society.

Anthropologists in the Field. D. G. JONGMANS and P. c. W. GUTKIND, eds.

(Non-European Societies, 6.) Assen: Van Gorcum & CO.,N.V., 1967. 277 pp., annotated bibliography on anthropological field work methods (348 entries), author index, chapter references. Hf. 32,50.(Library Reference) I remember finding this volume very useful for my fieldwork in 1970-72. We may have a copy of this book in the library.

One of the sources I strongly recommend is this documentary. Alan Macfarlene gives an account of his fieldwork among the Gurung. It is a fascinating narrative and it is truly moving. Also see interviews of Edmund Leach and Christoph Haimendorf http://www.alanmacfarlane.com/DO/filmshow/film30.htm (Alan Macfarlane) http://www.alanmacfarlane.com/DO/filmshow/leach_fast.htm (Edmund Leach) http://www.sms.cam.ac.uk/media/1116916 (Christoph Haimendorf) Reading Antonius , Robben and Sluka (2007) Ethnographic Fieldwork: An Anthropological Reader. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing (See the section titled Fieldwork Identity).

Alan Bryman (2001) Ethnography Volume 1, Sage Benchmarks in Research Methods, London: Sage Publications Ltd (This is a rich resource. See Chapter 5, Tenting with Malinowski by Murray L. Wax) Introduction to Anthropology by Lucy Mair, Edmund Leach and others.