Tenting Amidst Terrorists: The Upside of Central Mindanao Field Work

Abstract

When I was in graduate school my professors told me that fieldwork could be adventurous, but forgot to tell me it could also be hazardous. Of interest here is the issue of how pitching a tent, somewhat figuratively speaking, on terror prone foreign soil can illustrate practical out-of-classroom anthropology and offer career directions that should not necessarily be discounted outright because of potential hazards. After all, one would not expect a young physician to avoid entering a hospital for dread of contracting a disease. In 1980, when I first began looking at how Filipino rice farmers solved their disputes out-of-court, I had no idea that such fieldwork could actually involve risk to life and limb.