Is Fieldwork Losing its Grace? Encountering Western and Indian Experience

Abstract

Anthropology is primarily a field science, as a field provides the basic platform for critical scrutiny of ideas and theories of the discipline. Fieldwork is also an extremely indispensable tool to understand the culture of the “observed.” Magnificent outcomes of fieldwork in the hands of Malinowski, Mead, Evans-Pritchard, Barth, Firth, Bohannan, Levi-Strauss, Powdermaker, and others have been instrumental in the development of various discourses in anthropology and allied disciplines. Contributions of Indian anthropologists in field studies are also no less significant, as these reflect renewed interest in empiricism and the reflexive understanding of the culture of the “others.” But nowadays, fieldwork is getting less importance in western as well as in Indian academics. In this article, the author has tried to critically examine various issues in connection with the present days’ fieldwork enterprise, which is getting a diminishing importance.