""Doing Fieldwork" warrants our attention because its message,
bolstered by the editor's new introduction, is that the 1930's
heralded a paradigm shift in anthropology, and further that this
shift in fact addressed the same contenious issues raised in
today's so-called crisis of representation." -- Hispanic American
Historical Review "A candid, detailed window into the fieldwork and
analytical thinking of two of our most influential anthropologists.
A gem for students of method and theory in ethnography."-Susan C.
M. Scrimshaw, University of Illinois at Chicago
"This lively exchange of letters reveals how, by batting hunches
and hypotheses back and forth, often agreeing, sometimes
disagreeing, Redfield and Tax developed and sharpened theories
(always grounded in ethnographic data) relating to such themes as
worldview, race relations, caste vs. class, and acculturation. The
book provides fascinating insights into the differences between the
fieldwork experience in pre- and post-World War II years. It is
essential reading for anyone interested in the history of social
science." -George M. Foster, University of California, Berkeley
Prior to the 1930s the highlands of Guatemala were largely
undescribed, except in travelogues. Just two decades later, the
highlands had become one of the most anthropologically
well-investigated areas of the world. This is largely due to the
research that Robert Redfield and Sol Tax carried out between 1934
and 1941. Separately and together, Redfield and Tax anticipated and
guided anthropological investigations of people living in peasant
and urban communities in other areas of the world. Their work
helped to define the major outlines of research in the 1970s, and
since then much writing about the region has been formulated in
critical response to the Redfield-Tax program.
Not coincidentally, since the mid-1970s anthropology has been
caught up in a wave of self-doubt about the status of fieldwork and
the authority of ethnographic description. This critical stance has
often cast ethnography as a creative, literary enterprise. This
volume presents a timely view of the process of ethnography as
carried out by two of its early practitioners. Containing a wealth
of ethnographic detail, the book reveals how Redfield and Tax
developed and tested ethnological hypotheses, and it allows us to
follow the development of their major theoretical statements. The
result is an exceptionally clear picture of the process of
ethnography. Redfield and Tax emerge as rigorous and sensitive
observers of social life whose observations bear importantly on
contemporary understandings of the ethnology of Guatemala and the
enterprise of anthropology. This book will be of interest to
students of method and theory in ethnography, Latin Americanists,
and other professionals interested in the history of idea.
Robert A. Rubinstein has conducted fieldwork in Yucatan, Mexico,
in Belize, in rural Egypt, and in the United States. He is editor,
with Mary LeCron Foster, of Peace and War: Cross-Cultural
Perspectives (also available from Transaction).
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