Russel-Research-Method-in-Anthropology

380 Chapter 13
term ‘‘culture shock,’’ by the way, was introduced in 1960 by an anthropologist,
Kalervo Oberg.) One kind of shock comes as the novelty of the field site
wears off and there is this nasty feeling that research has to get done. Some
researchers (especially those on their first field trip) may also experience feelings
of anxiety about their ability to collect good data.
A good response at this stage is to do highly task-oriented work: making
maps, taking censuses, doing household inventories, collecting genealogies,
and so on. Another useful response is to make clinical, methodological field
notes about your feelings and responses in doing participant observation
fieldwork.
Another kind of shock is to the culture itself. Culture shock is an uncomfortable
stress response and must be taken very seriously. In serious cases of
culture shock, nothing seems right. You may find yourself very upset at a lack
of clean toilet facilities, or people’s eating habits, or their child-rearing practices.
The prospect of having to put up with the local food for a year or more
may become frightening. You find yourself focusing on little annoyances—
something as simple as the fact that light switches go side to side rather than
up and down may upset you.
This last example is not fanciful, by the way. It happened to a colleague of
mine. When I first went to work with the Ñähñu in 1962, men would greet me
by sticking out their right hand. When I tried to grab their hand and shake it,
they deftly slid their hand to my right so that the back of their right hand
touched the back of my right hand. I became infuriated that men didn’t shake
hands the way ‘‘they’re supposed to.’’ You may find yourself blaming everyone
in the culture, or the culture itself, for the fact that your informants don’t
keep appointments for interviews.
Culture shock commonly involves a feeling that people really don’t want
you around (this may, in fact, be the case). You feel lonely and wish you could
find someone with whom to speak your native language. Even with a spouse
in the field, the strain of using another language day after day, and concentrating
hard so that you can collect data in that language, can be emotionally
wearing.
A common personal problem in field research is not being able to get any
privacy. Many people across the world find the Anglo-Saxon notion of privacy
grotesque. When we first went out to the island of Kalymnos in Greece in
1964, Carole and I rented quarters with a family. The idea was that we’d be
better able to learn about family dynamics that way. Women of the household
were annoyed and hurt when my wife asked for a little time to be alone. When
I came home at the end of each day’s work, I could never just go to my family’s
room, shut the door, and talk to Carole about my day, or hers, or our new