I haven’t been posting here for a bit because I am in the middle of getting my fieldwork started in Mexico (finally!). These things take time…as many of you out there already know. First you spend what seems like an eternity taking classes and doing all that required grad school stuff. Then you spend another massive chunk of time working on your proposal. After that you whittle your life away asking for money from lots of people (grant-writing). Then, if you do cultural anthropology, you have to do the IRB. Archaeologists have their own set of logistical/bureaucratic problems before going anywhere near their field sites as well. We all have to get things like institutional affiliation, and take the time to do some preliminary work just to see if our research ideas are even viable. And then, finally, somehow, amazingly, that incredible day comes around when it’s actually time to start fieldwork.
And you say to yourself: Now what?
Just getting yourself to the field can be a trek in an of itself. Even if you aren’t working half way around the world from your university (I’m not, since I am working in Mexico, which is relatively close). These things take time. You have to think about really basic things like transportation, possible medical issues, insurance, communication…and of course food. There are a lot of things to be worked out when setting up fieldwork, and a lot of decisions to be made and logistical problems to be solved.
Enough of the preamble: this is a post about books. Choosing books, to be more succinct. So, when I got on my flight to head down to Mexico, one of the tough decisions that I had to make was which books I was going to take with me. I narrowed things down to one box, and then had to narrow that down even more. There’s only so much room in a 737 after all. The good news for me, at least, is that I am actually going back to the US and then driving back down to Mexico–which will give me the chance to bring even MORE books. Not too many, of course. I promise. For many people who have to travel really far, this is not an option, so the initial book-choosing is all the more critical.
Now is the part of this post where things get interactive. If you had to choose a half dozen or so absolutely essential anthropological books to take into the field, what would they be? Here is my list of essential books that I took with me on this trip:
- The Professional Stranger by Michael H. Agar (Never read this one before this year, so I bought it. Agar has a good way of laying out and talking about some of the key issues in ethnography. I’m re-reading it now).
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The Art of Fieldwork by Harry Wolcott (I’ve always liked Wolcott’s take on ethnography).
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Research Methods in Cultural Anthropology by H. Russell Bernard (This is an older text, but still full of good stuff. Sure, I have read through more recent editions of Bernard’s methods books, but this one is still good…and it’s a nice small paperback too).
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Writing Ethnographic Fieldnotes by Emerson et al (Definitely time to browse through this one again, that’s why it made the list).
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Global Transformations by Michel Rolf Trouillot (I have read parts of this book, but not the whole thing. I took this along almost entirely because Jason Antrosio mentions it so often and that makes me want to read it all the more).
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Toward an Anthropological Theory of Value by David Graeber (This book is the one that I have been scouring quite a lot for the last year or so. If Graeber’s book on debt wasn’t so big that would have come too. That’ll come down in the Jeep in January, for sure).
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The Human Economy by Keith Hart et al (I have been reading a lot more of Hart’s work the last year as well. Great stuff. This new edited volume is packed with all kinds of good chapters. Definitely a good choice for any economically minded anthros out there, since it covers a wide territory).
8. Coffee and Community by Sarah Lyon (Dr Lyon is my adviser…definitely gonna read this one inside and out).
Ok, so that’s eight books instead of a half dozen. It happens. One interesting thing is that I felt pretty compelled to bring a lot of methods books. Did you do this as well–or I am the only one? I’m interested to hear what books you brought to the field, and, more importantly, why. If you are planning on heading out to do fieldwork, what books do you have in mind? Are you bringing the classics? Only the latest methods texts and ethnographies? Or, on the flip side of all this, are you some techie hipster who has gone entirely digital, thereby completely eliminating this whole issue?
*The top important book that I MEANT to bring but somehow forgot? Wolf’s Europe and the People Without History. Ouch. Gotta bring that one for sure.
I brought Emerson’s Writing Ethnographic Fieldnotes, Trouillot’s Silencing the Past and Usha Jain’s Beginnner and Advanced Hindi books. My fieldwork was in a city so I figured I’d be best off reading what I found there — no shortage of books, newspapers, and magazines to read in Delhi. My fieldsite was all consuming and I found that this actually made it hard to even read academic works while doing fieldwork. For my pilot fieldwork, I remember sitting in a Delhi cafe that had American pro wrestling playing on the wall, trying to read Modernity at Large (a caption to my predicament) but I just couldn’t get through the academic prose while its referents bustled around me.
A year and a half into my fieldwork, almost the only books I’ve read are ones that fill in part of the history or cultural background of some element of my field site. I think I’ve also read a couple ethnographies from other locales but methodologically similar situations. All the theory and methods books I brought are dead weight. (I’ve never actually read a methodology book – I’m willing to admit it might have been useful – and my advisors sole methodological advice was “take LOTS of notes”.) And really, shouldn’t they be? Are you going to “the field”, as a methodological abstraction, or are you going to _Mexico_?
I took only 2 fiction books with me to la paz. And i never cracked them. Granted, the amount of pdf-ed material on my laptop is probably the equivalent (or more) of what sits in hard copy on my bookshelf at home, but I’m not sure I read much of that either. When I go back in early 2012 I will be attempting to seriously write while I’m there, which may necessitate more academic books, but in terms of methodological texts, I never regretted leaving them behind.
I brought mostly methods books, since in my field (bioarchaeology) they’re the standards by which I had to collect data. I used half a dozen books every week, if not every day, of data collection. I also used my two Italian dictionaries quite a bit. The rest that I brought – books about ancient Rome, my “field site” – went unused in the field, but then were heavily used back home during the analysis phase.
I do wish that the major methods books came in electronic form, though, because incredibly useful tomes like Identification of Pathological Conditions on Human Skeletal Remains are cumbersome to drag around the world. Fortunately, in new editions, these books are being digitized (like the 3rd edition of Human Osteology).
Almost done with Graeber’s book on Debt, and I’ve loved every page – engaging, thought-provoking, detailed, fun. Value’s on my list as well — do you guys have anything else to recomend in similar veins?
If you have read a lot in econ anth (and you’re in SEA) please consider adding short paragraphs here to direct others toward important books! https://seawiki.wikidot.com/annotated-biblography
And I’m halfway in the field now, but brought mostly ebooks on a reader — so that certainly distorts these types of decisions!
lilly wrote:
“For my pilot fieldwork, I remember sitting in a Delhi cafe that had American pro wrestling playing on the wall, trying to read Modernity at Large (a caption to my predicament) but I just couldn’t get through the academic prose while its referents bustled around me.”
That’s a good image of how things go in the field. Fieldwork, in many ways, is the time to stop all of the incessant reading and start soaking up what’s going on all around. In that sense, I probably have a bad habit of dragging too many books along with me. But then…sometimes it’s good to be able to sift through some of the good, key parts of certain books. These are times when having all books on e-readers would be nice.
Adam Leeds wrote:
“All the theory and methods books I brought are dead weight…And really, shouldn’t they be? Are you going to “the field”, as a methodological abstraction, or are you going to _Mexico_?”
I know what you mean about the theory books. I didn’t really feel any need to bring a bunch of Foucault to the field. Nope. For the most part, the stacks and stacks of theory books stayed home–although I do have plenty of PDFs I can look at if I somehow have some strange need to travel to theory land. I did bring a few key econ anthro books that I thought might be good for some ideas along the way. But I kind of like having some of the methods books here. Maybe that’s just me…
As for the question about whether or not I am going into “the field” or going to a certain part of Mexico…well…I guess it seems that I am doing both, no? I have framed this “ethnographic project,” which is definitely an abstraction, and then at the same time I am in a particular place that has its own currents that I have to learn and pay attention to. And I have to find ways to keep rethinking and reshaping the project (ie the abstraction), based upon what I find here on a day to day basis. So there seems to be an interesting tension going on. It’s a funny process that we get ourselves into, isn’t it?
nell wrote:
“Granted, the amount of pdf-ed material on my laptop is probably the equivalent (or more) of what sits in hard copy on my bookshelf at home, but I’m not sure I read much of that either.”
That was one question I had–how much PDFs and e-readers make this whole question kind of irrelevant. I have ALL of my articles on this tiny little computer, which makes life way easier when it comes to traveling. Will I read many of them while down here? Probably not. But it’s good to have them around just in case.
Kristina wrote:
“I do wish that the major methods books came in electronic form, though, because incredibly useful tomes like Identification of Pathological Conditions on Human Skeletal Remains are cumbersome to drag around the world.”
Yes!! I second that one, Kristina.
“Value’s on my list as well — do you guys have anything else to recomend in similar veins?”
Have you read Graeber’s 2001 book on value? Definitely check that out. Also you might be interested in Julia Elyachar’s 2005 Markets of Dispossession. She talks about value in some interesting ways in that book.
Hi Ryan,
Really interesting stuff! Hope the Trouillot Global Transformations is OK–the good news on that is in a pinch it can stand-in for the Eric Wolf you forgot (and since you are in Mexico you may try Wolf’s Sons of the Shaking Earth anyway). Would agree with Lilly above that Trouillot’s Silencing the Past is worth a look on how history gets made and told.
I actually found Bourdieu’s Outline of a Theory of Practice made much more sense in the field than trying to read it in graduate school. I also benefitted a lot from Antonius C.G.M. Robben, Sons of the Sea Goddess: Economic Practice and Discursive Conflict in Brazil which I don’t see used much but has great ethnographic matieral and ideas.
Would put in a plug for Tim Ingold’s Perception of the Environment. Hefty, yes, but with lots of great little ethnographic-interpretive essays. It’s really an account of how to take people seriously, and that’s a useful lesson for the field.
Thanks!
Jason
For my dissertation fieldwork I flew from Chicago to Singapore to Cairns to Port Moresby to Mt. Hagen. Then I took a bus eight hours to the end of the road and walked the remaining couple of kilometers up to where my village was situated. There was a some-times working post office in the valley at that point, and every month or so I got the computer repair people at the mine to get me a satellite feed to check my email — it was so slow sshing into the server and reading mail via pine was the best option.
I remember bringing:
Underworld, Don DeLilo
Infinite Jest, David Foster Wallace
Brothers Karamazov, Dostoevsky
Anna Karenina, Tolstoi
Theory of Communicative Action v.2, Habermas
Forest of Taboos, Valerio Valeri
Research Methods, Barnard (should have brought “Fieldnotes” by Emerson)
Research Practices in the Study of Kinship, Barnard and Good
I was there for 2 years. I read all of the novels and the how-to manual on kinship. Who says fieldwork isn’t good for building cultural capital?
I think younger anthropologists have very different fieldsites and reading habits than we gen-xers.
As somebody who is doing research within commuting distance from home, this really was not such an issue. However, I just keep wanting to read ethnographies (and the occasional work by theorists who have always been at the periphery of my field of knowledge). I am not sure whether it is because I want to grip the cover as an icon of what is possible, I am looking for the words of others to test my own work against, or I am just enjoying reading interesting things as a bit of a break.
I am not sure if my directionless reading has gotten in the way of doing effective research. Maybe if I had to settle on half a dozen methodological and theoretical works it would impose some discipline on my thinking?
John Farella, The Wind in the Jar
I brought about half methods and half ethnographies/histories of my fieldsite and the country in general:
– Bernard’s tome on research methods
– Bernard’s more recent book on qualitative data analysis (very clearly written)
– some of the multi-book series The Ethnographer’s Toolkit by Schensul and LeCompte (I like its mix of straight forward how-to with vignettes of actual fieldwork)
– about 6 ethnographies from various regions and times of Madagascar
I am in the middle of my fieldwork in eastern Madagascar, and had two long flights and one long bus ride to get to where I am living, so space and weight was also a concern. I have found both methods books and ethnographies really useful in different ways. Every time I start a new phase of my research it has been nice to have a couple references to read quickly to remind myself of what I should be doing (or not) from the methods books. And when I had some more down-time at the start of my project, I loved reading book-length ethnographies of the same country where I am working to get inspiration and ideas.
I cannot imagine why anyone in their right mind would bring Foucault, Wolf, or god forbid “Writing Ethnographic Fieldnotes” to your actual fieldwork.
I brought novels, from Tolstoy to Franzen, and ended up reading most of them and also reading parts of a few somewhat recent dissertations of some anthropologists I know to be smart.
I would HIGHLY suggest Susanna Kaysen’s Far Afield, a brilliant novel that is the best account of anthropological fieldwork I’ve ever read, including ethnographies.
@Rex:
Good call on bringing a book by Don Delillo. A great writer, IMO. I haven’t read Underworld, but White Noise has always been one of my favorite books. I think it’s a good idea to bring a nice stack of lit books into the field…for some time off, yes, but also because it helps get the ideas going too. At least for me.
“I think younger anthropologists have very different fieldsites and reading habits than we gen-xers.”
Hmmm. Well, I’m a bit of an older grad student who lands on the edge of the fuzzy gen x line, so maybe that explains my habit of carting too many books from point A to point B. Interesting.
@Tracey:
“I am not sure if my directionless reading has gotten in the way of doing effective research. Maybe if I had to settle on half a dozen methodological and theoretical works it would impose some discipline on my thinking?”
You know, I kind of like your explanations about why you might want to read ethnographies in the field–to have a hold on what’s possible, to test what you’re thinking, or just for a break. Makes sense to me. Maybe you’re doing all three. As for how your reading has affected your research, I don’t know, it sounds like it might be a good way to think through things and generate ideas. I’d like to hear how things go. Everyone has their own way of working through this stuff, and it’s pretty interesting to hear some of these different methods. Thanks.
@Lowie: Never heard of that book–and it looks like a good one. Thanks for posting that.
@Laura:
“I have found both methods books and ethnographies really useful in different ways…”
Ya, I am right there with you on that. I brought a few books for the same kinds of reasons as you I think. More to have them on hand to check every now and again, and also for some ideas, etc. I have already read most of the methods books that I brought, but I took them along just so I could peruse certain sections if needed. I have been re-reading parts of Agar on these first few days back into the field, and its been pretty useful for some reminders, etc).
“…I loved reading book-length ethnographies of the same country where I am working to get inspiration and ideas.”
Yep, I know what you mean. When I did my MA work in Oaxaca, I really got a lot out of reading some of the ethnographies there. Where I am working in Mexico now there aren’t exactly a lot of ethnographies per se, but there are a lot of travel lit type books written about the region (Baja California)–I didn’t mention this in the main post but I took a few of these along as well. Yes, I have a book problem, it’s true…
@Claire:
“I cannot imagine why anyone in their right mind would bring Foucault, Wolf, or god forbid “Writing Ethnographic Fieldnotes” to your actual fieldwork.”
Well, we all have our own styles I guess. I kinda dig some of the stuff in the Emerson book, and there are definitely parts of Wolf’s Europe and the People w/o History that I like to check out from time to time. But that’s just me. Although, it’s certainly plausible that I am not in my right mind–you may be on to something there.
“I brought novels, from Tolstoy to Franzen, and ended up reading most of them and also reading parts of a few somewhat recent dissertations of some anthropologists I know to be smart.”
I definitely agree with you about bringing novels and other lit along. It’s good on many levels. I like to bring along books by people like William Vollmann, Annie Dillard, and Rebecca Solnit. Solnit’s Landscapes for Politics is one that I gave away last time I was here, so I need to grab another copy.
Susanna Kaysen is a fantastic writer, thanks for the tip about that one. I have only read Girl, Interrupted–which I have always felt was a really good commentary on certain social science practices and assumptions (especially regarding psych, of course). I’ll have to look into this other one too…thanks.
@Jason:
First it was Global Transformations, and now it’s Ingold! What next?!! I think I am going to have to start an Antrosio-inspired reading list! 😉
In all seriousness, I have read SOME Ingold, and what I have read I have really liked a lot. I read two chapters of Perception of the Environment for a class a while back, and I still go back to those notes. I like how Ingold frames things, a lot. He also wrote a great piece about the differences between anthropology and ethnography that I really like. Long story short: Ingold is another good call, especially a book that’s about taking people seriously. Thanks for the comment!
Sons of the Shaking Earth would be my own choice if I were carting along something by Wolf to Mexico.
I personally prefer how his friend Philippe Descola frames things. That’s just me, though.
One of my profs from grad school told the story of one his cohort traveling to do diss field work in Africa and thinking: now will be the perfect time to finally getting around to reading Hegel and so packed Phenomenology of the Spirit. In the end he wound up giving the book to his informants who used the leaf thin pages as rolling papers and to wipe their asses.
I packed a lot of books to take to the field too, but didn’t do much reading. Most of the time you’re simply too busy doing other things. Of the methodology works I found the most useful to be Spradley’s books on interviewing and participant observation.
I’m currently struggling with this question as well. I think I’m mostly going to take ethnographies and histories of Indonesia and Sumatra (where I’m going). Luckily for me, these works are also where I draw most of my theoretical stuff from, so that simplifies things significantly.
On the other hand, I will also be lugging along many hundreds of cloud-synced PDFs, including many books. I’m hoping to not have to get into these very often, but I must admit the idea of having them for reference is comforting.
Slightly off topic, I think this is an interesting part of how notions of ‘the field’ have changed dramatically thanks to the internet and communications. I’m going to a place that not so long ago was written about as “remote.” I’ll be texting with my informants, blogging some of my field notes, syncing the rest to ‘the cloud,’ reading international news daily, and skyping with my family and perhaps my advisors.
Am I a techie hipster? Hmmmm. I have an iPad and solar charger (no electricity in the Northern Guajira) which has been loaded with Murakami’s 1Q84, Kristof and WuDunn’s Half the sky, Thomas’ The end of Mr. Y, and now Emerson’s Writing Ethnographic fieldnotes (as well as a series of mountaineering texts and pdfs on community media). But I am also taking a bound photocopy of a Colombian friend’s fieldnotes and a tattered and annotated copy of Guber’s La etnografía from his original fieldwork.
I too have several flights and 8 hour jeep journeys across the desert, hikes to outlying communities and a stack of moleskine notebooks. But in one of the villages there is a phone signal due to the Comcel mast and therefore I can discreetly send emails and messages from my Blackberry.
Connected/not connected. Pros and cons of ebooks, possibility of carrying a lot of gear with me on my trips…these all weigh on my mind, but I don’t think it creates such an enormous disconnect with the experiences of those who have done this before. It is just important to manage these things so that they are support for the work you are doing and not the only way you communicate or (dis)connect with others.
Any more suggestions for reading material would be welcomed. I have a stay in Bogotá for a few days now and am stocking up:-)