Russel-Research-Method-in-Anthropology

384 Chapter 13
People who began as your informants may become your friends as well. In the
best of cases, you come to trust that they will not deceive you about their
culture, and they come to trust you not to betray them—that is, not to use your
intimate knowledge of their lives to hurt them. (You can imagine the worst of
cases.) There is often a legitimate expectation on both sides that the relationship
may be permanent, not just a 1-year fling.
For many long-term participant observation researchers, there is no final
leaving of ‘‘the field.’’ I’ve been working with some people, on and off, for 40
years. Like many anthropologists who work in Latin America, I’m godparent
to a child of my closest research collaborator. From time to time, people from
Mexico or from Greece will call my house on the phone, just to say ‘‘hi’’ and
to keep the relationship going.
Or their children, who happen to be doing graduate work at a university in
the United States, will call and send their parents’ regards. They’ll remind you
of some little event they remember when they were 7 or 8 and you came to
their parents’ house to do some interviewing and you spilled your coffee all
over yourself as you fumbled with your tape recorder. People remember the
darndest things. You’d better be ready when it happens.
Many fieldworkers have been called on to help the children of their informants
get into a college or university. This is the sort of thing that happens 20
years after you’ve ‘‘left’’ the field. The fact is, participant observation fieldwork
can be a lifetime commitment. As in all aspects of ordinary life, you
have to learn to choose your relationships well. Don’t be surprised if you make
a few mistakes.
The Front-Edge: Combining Methods
More and more researchers these days, across the social sciences, have
learned what a powerful method powerful participant observation is at all
stages of the research process. The method stands on its own, but it is also
increasingly part of a mixed-method strategy, as researchers combine qualitative
and quantitative data to answer questions of interest.
Laura Miller (1997) used a mix of ethnographic and survey methods to
study gender harassment in the U.S. Army. Keeping women out of jobs that
have been traditionally reserved for men is gender harassment; asking women
for sex in return for a shot at one of those jobs is sexual harassment. (Gender
harassment need not involve sexual harassment, or vice versa.)
Miller spent nearly 2 years collecting data at eight army posts and at two
training centers in the United States where war games are played out on simulated
battlefields. She lived in Somalia with U.S. Army personnel for 10 days,