Fieldwork is a central method of research throughout anthropology, a much-valued, much-vaunted mode of generating information. But its nature and process have been seriously understudied in biological anthropology and primatology. This book is the first ever comparative investigation, across primatology, biological anthropology, and social anthropology, to look critically at this key research practice. It is also an innovative way to further the comparative project within a broadly conceived anthropology, because it does not focus on common theory but on a common method. The questions asked by contributors are: what in the pursuit of fieldwork is common to all three disciplines, what is unique to each, how much is contingent, how much necessary? Can we generate well-grounded cross-disciplinary generalizations about this mutual research method, and are there are any telling differences? Co-edited by a social anthropologist and a primatologist, the book includes a list of distinguished and well-established contributors from primatology and biological anthropology.

Fieldwork is a central method of research throughout anthropology, a much-valued, much-vaunted mode of generating information. But its nature and process have been seriously understudied in biological anthropology and primatology. This book is the first ever comparative investigation, across primatology, biological anthropology, and social anthropology, to look critically at this key research practice. It is also an innovative way to further the comparative project within a broadly conceived anthropology, because it does not focus on common theory but on a common method. The questions asked by contributors are: what in the pursuit of fieldwork is common to all three disciplines, what is unique to each, how much is contingent, how much necessary? Can we generate well-grounded cross-disciplinary generalizations about this mutual research method, and are there are any telling differences? Co-edited by a social anthropologist and a primatologist, the book includes a list of distinguished and well-established contributors from primatology and biological anthropology.

Chapter 1. Centralizing Fieldwork
Jeremy MacClancy and Agustín Fuentes

Chapter 2. The Do’s and Don’ts of Fieldwork
Geoffrey A. Harrison

Chapter 3. The Anthropologist as a Primatologist: Mental Journeys of a Fieldworker
Volker Sommer

Chapter 4. Primate Fieldwork and its Human Contexts in Southern Madagascar
Robert W. Sussman

Chapter 5. Problem Animals or Problem People? Ethics, Politics and Practice or Conflict between Community Perspectives and Fieldwork on Conservation
Phyllis C. Lee

Chapter 6. Ecological Anthropology and Primatology: Fieldwork Practices and Mutual Benefits
Juichi Yamagiwa

Chapter 7. Lost in Translation: Field Primatology, Culture, and Interdisciplinary Approaches
Nobuyuki Kutsukake

Chapter 8. Measuring Meaning and Understanding in Primatological and Biological Anthropology Fieldwork: Context and Practice
Agustín Fuentes

Chapter 9. Fieldwork as Research Process and Community Engagement
Mark Eggerman and Catherine Panter-Brick

Chapter 10. Framing the Quantitative within the Qualitative: Why Biological Anthropologists do Fieldwork
Lyliane Rosetta

Chapter 11. Considerations on Field Methods used to assess Non-human Primate Feeding Behaviours and Human Food Intake in terms of nutritional requirements
Claude Marcel Hladik

Chapter 12. Anthropobiological Surveys in the Field: A reflection on the Bioethics of Human Medical and DNA Surveys
Alain Froment

Chapter 13. Field Schools in Central America: playing a pivotal role in the formation of modern field primatologists
Katherine C. MacKinnon

Chapter 14. The Narrator’s Stance: Story-telling and Science at Berenty Reserve
Alison Jolly

Chapter 15. Natural Homes: Primate Fieldwork and the Anthropological Method
Pamela J. Asquith

Chapter 16. Popularizing Fieldwork: Examples from Primatology and Biological Anthropology
Jeremy MacClancy

Index