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Chapter-6 Fieldwork Tradition in Anthropology

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Q1. “Arm-chair anthropologists were fieldworkers.” State whether the
statement is true or false?
Ans. An armchair anthropologist usually refers to late 19th century and early 20th
century scholars coming to conclusions without going through the usual anthropology
motions--fieldwork or labwork. Individuals like James Frazer or E.B. Tylor are great
examples. They would sift through artifacts from colonists, missionaries and then draw
conclusions using, often, their imagination. Unfortunately, this helped lead early
anthropology to make some inappropriate conclusions about race and racism. In a more
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modern context, "arm-chair" anthropology could really refer to anyone making
anthropological assessments without doing the legwork. It meant that rather than
confronting the reality themselves, they were just imagining it to be what they thought
was logically possible, or could have been possible at one time, by basing them on the
biased, exaggerated, and prejudiced information that was gathered by unskilled, lay
persons. Often, their purpose was to shock the western world with the existence of odd
and peculiar practices of the non-western people. Once the tradition of the ‘arm-chair
anthropology’ was rejected, the approach that came up was the first-hand study of a
society.It meant that the anthropologist was also the data-collector, not just an analyst
and interpreter of the information that hitherto had been gathered.
Today anthropologists collect their data from real societies. They live with the people in
their natural habitats, collect, analyze and interpret the data to have an understanding
of the structure and function of society. This real time knowledge of society is also
essential to bring about any kind of change in society.
Many programmes and innovative idea was rejected by the people in the past because
these were not in line with the customs and practices of the people and did not reflect
their aspirations and demands. Thus, people rejected the proposed or introduced
changes without hesitation because of their alien nature. On finding people
unresponsive, in some cases, the state and the change-producing agencies thought that
the people were inert and passive, and were unaware of the long-term benefits of the
changes, and thus would accept the changes and innovations only when these were
imposed on them, sometimes forcibly.

Q2. What is the importance of fieldwork? Describe the brief history of
fieldwork in anthropology.
Ans. Fieldwork is among the most distinctive practices anthropologists bring to the
study of human life in society. Conducted in a more familiar setting, it can lead the
anthropologist. The main contributions of social anthropology to other fields of
knowledge, not only in social but also in natural and biological sciences, is in terms of

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