Historical Component

Ethnographic fieldwork provided an effective way for anthropologists to collect information on the kinds of societies that existed on the edges of the known Western world.  The immediacy and rigorousness of participant observation allowed ethnographers to amass accurate and insightful information about these hitherto little known societies; the absence of writing, and the remoteness of many of these societies made fieldwork one of the few ways that direct collection of data was possible.  These ethnographic endeavors did much in the US and Europe to dispel many of the stereotypes and misinformation about these societies, and to affirm the common humanity of people belonging to very different cultures.  Fieldwork also helped shape analytical approaches that could begin to explore and make intelligible cultural differences.  Ultimately fieldwork helped broaden the understanding in Western societies of the diversity of the human cultures.

But fieldwork also carried unconscious assumptions about the differences separating modern Western society from traditional or “primitive” societies.  Anthropologist Eric Wolf (who wrote a book called Europe and the People without History), for example, notes that fieldwork assumes that traditional societies have no past, and therefore no history.  The assumption implies that traditional societies change little, and when they do change, it is a gradual, slow, evolutionary change.  Perhaps it also suggests that traditional cultures are not very adaptable, and that they often collapse hopelessly when confronted by the radical differences that modern society offers.  Such societies, fieldwork implies, are incapable of managing or negotiating their incorporation into the modern world.

Since the 1970’s anthropologists like Wolf have argued forcefully that the isolation of the primitive society is really a myth; most traditional societies around the world, they argue, have long been impacted by colonialism, or by the post-colonial states into which they have been incorporated.  Many traditional societies have in fact undergone profound changes, changes which the fieldworker may not have readily observed because of the "snap-shot" (in the present) perspective of participant observation.  These changes aren't just superficial or ideological:  they may include deep demographic and environmental changes, changes in the political and social structures of indigenous groups, religious changes, economic changes (the move of many Mundurucu from the savannas to the riverene shorelines is one example).  Another anthropologist, Brian Ferguson, even argues that indigenous groups go through a process of what he calls tribalization as they come into contact with colonial powers; in other words, he says, they may actually become “tribes” in order to negotiate their relationship with the colonizing power.  Their membership, leadership, cultural distinctiveness, and social boundaries become much more defined as they attempt to respond to or take advantage of the intrusion of colonial powers or expanding states.  This suggests that much of what ethnographers assumed was "traditional culture" may in fact have been recent inventions which appeared as a  response to outside incursions.

In the final analysis, what this has taught ethnographers is that historical analysis must be a fundamental component of any fieldwork experience.  Fieldworkers acknowledge today that you can only understand the social reality you are observing if you understand where it came from.  So most fieldworkers today incorporate a historical understanding of the societies they are studying into their fieldwork.

I want you to explore the historical background of the group you are studying.  In a summary essay, I’d like you to briefly outline the kinds of changes that they have experienced during recent historical periods. You should reflect on a number of questions in your essay:  What kinds of changes has the group you are examining undergone historically?  What kind of encounters have they had with outside forces (colonialism, government and military agents, missionaries, merchants, guerrilla groups, disease, environmental change, etc.) which have had an effect on their culture?  How have they responded to the intrusions of outside forces?  In what ways are they a different group today than what they were in the past?

Your essay should be written in a way that provides a coherent narration of the history of the group you are studying.  The aim of your narrative is to help your reader understand the current reality of the group by peering into its past.  In contrast to our other essays, this essay is going to be read, analyzed and evaluated by your peers, who may have little knowledge of your group.  Write your essay with that readership in mind.  Your essay need be no longer than three pages in length, and should include your sources.  It will be due on Monday, Nov. 20.