Observers Observed: Essays on Ethnographic Fieldwork.

TLDR

The History of Anthropology series publishes annual volumes on key themes, and this first volume focuses on modern cultural anthropology and intensive participant observation, featuring essays on the history of ethnographic fieldwork in American, British, and French traditions since 1880. The authors aim to investigate the development of modern fieldwork in a serious historical way. The collection is expected to be of great interest and value to anthropologists, historians of science, social scientists, and general readers. The volume compiles essays by scholars including Barnett, Clifford, Cole, Handler, Hinsley, Larcom, Rabinow, and the editor.

Abstract

History of Anthropology is a new series of annual volumes, each of which will treat an important theme in the history of anthropological inquiry. For this initial volume, the editors have chosen to focus on the modern cultural anthropology: intensive fieldwork by participant observation. Observers Observed includes essays by a distinguished group of historians and anthropologists covering major episodes in the history of ethnographic fieldwork in the American, British, and French traditions since 1880. As the first work to investigate the development of modern fieldwork in a serious historical way, this collection will be of great interest and value to anthropologist, historians of science and the social sciences, and the general readers interested in the way in which modern anthropologists have perceived and described the cultures of others. Included in this volume are the contributions of Homer G. Barnett, University of Oregon; James Clifford, University of California, Santa Cruz; Douglas Cole, Simon Frazer University; Richard Handler, Lake Forest College; Curtis Hinsley, Colgate University; Joan Larcom, Mount Holyoke College; Paul Rabinow, University of California, Berkeley; and the editor.