Fieldwork Dilemmas: Anthropologists In Postsocialist States

by Hermine G. De Soto, Nora Dudwick (Contribution by)

Overview

In Fieldwork Dilemmas ten anthropologists disclose the political and physical dangers inherent in field research. Focusing on former socialist states, they vividly depict the upheavals of everyday life in eastern Euorpe, revealing how their informants and the communities in which they live undergo political and economic dislocations, plummeting living standards, emerging gender inequalities, and ethnic and nationalist violence.

Reports from Armenia, Bulgaria, eastern Germany, Kyrgyzstan, Macedonia, Russia, Serbia, and Uzbekistan show how fieldworkers struggle to reconcile previous experiences with postsocialist stereotypes about Soviet culture, the West, and the effects of the penetration of capitalism into noncapitalist societies. These fieldwork dilemmas are analyzed by anthropologists who are learning to position themselves professionally and personally in the field under often unstable, unpredictable situations. This volume will interest not only anthropologists but fieldworkers of all kinds, and not only scholars of eastern Europe but all those who study rapid societal changes.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780299163747
Publisher:	University of Wisconsin Press
Publication date:	08/31/2000
Edition description:	1
Pages:	288
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.70(d)

Table of Contents

	Foreword: Ethnography and Postsocialism	ix
	Introduction	3
Part 1.	Fieldwork in Disintegrating and Reintegrating Nations and States	9
1.	Postsocialism and the Fieldwork of War	13
2.	Would the Real Nationalists Please Step Forward: Destructive Narration in Macedonia	31
3.	Telling Stories of Serbia: Native and Other Dilemmas on the Edge of Chaos	49
Part 2.	Fieldworkers in the Postsocialist Field	69
4.	Crossing Western Boundaries: How East Berlin Women Observed Women Researchers from the West after Socialism, 1991-1992	73
5.	Ethnographic Encounters in Post-Soviet Kyrgyzstan: Dilemmas of Gender, Poverty, and the Cold War	100
6.	When Text Becomes Field: Fieldwork in "Transitional" Societies	119
7.	Fieldwork and the "Doctoring" of National Identities in Arctic Siberia	130
Part 3.	Negotiating Personal Relationships in the Postsocialist Field	149
8.	Intruder in Uzbekistan: Walking the Line between Community Needs and Anthropological Desiderata	153
9.	Mixed Devotions: Religion, Friendship, and Fieldwork in Postsocialist Eastern Germany	172
10.	Researcher, Advocate, Friend: An American Fieldworker among Balkan Roma, 1980-1996	195
	Afterword: Intimations from an Uncertain Place	219
	Contributors	239
	Index	244

Editorial Reviews

De Soto and Dudwick, both staff anthropologists at the World Bank, have compiled ten reports on the physical and political dangers inherent in doing fieldwork in post-Socialist Eastern European states that are undergoing rapid sociocultural changes. Treating topics that include war, friendship, gender, poverty, religion, and identity, the contributors (all anthropologists) address methodological questions concerning safety, objectivity, and the ethical dilemmas faced by the informants, fieldworkers, and communities. The dynamic relationship between citizen and state is examined within the complex context of painful transition. The issues discussed are relevant to all the social sciences (particularly to those researchers interested in the relationship between ideology and ethnography in terms of the ongoing struggle to rebuild a society). Extensive notes and references are included, as well as arresting photographs by the fieldworkers. This provocative and unique work is recommended for all large anthropology collections.--H. James Birx, Canisius Coll., Buffalo, NY Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information.\

Library Journal

Examines the postsocialist field and the special issues it raises for ethnographic fieldworkers as they document the rebuilding of states, political and economic dislocations, plummeting living standards, gender inequities, and ethnic and nationalist violence. Offers firsthand accounts of the ethical and practical fieldwork dilemmas which confront anthropologists in rapidly changing societies, many of which only recently opened up to foreign ethnographers. Focus is on field research in eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union. The editors are with the World Bank. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Booknews

The essays in this book are engagingly written and rich with ethnographic examples. . . . They make their points in ways that are subtle as well as accessible to educated readers from a variety of disciplines.”—Alaina Lemon, Slavic Review

From the Publisher