In the Field: Life and Work in Cultural Anthropology [Paperback]

This book offers an invaluable look at what cultural anthropologists do when they are in the field. Through fascinating and often entertaining accounts of their lives and work in varied cultural settings, the authors describe the many forms fieldwork can take, the kinds of questions anthropologists ask, and the common problems they encounter. From these accounts and the experiences of the student field workers the authors have mentored over the years,In the Fieldmakes a powerful case for the value of the anthropological approach to knowledge.

George Gmelch is Professor of Anthropology at the University of San Francisco and Union College. He has published fourteen books and has also written for theNew York Times, theWashington Post,Psychology Today,Society, andNatural History.

Sharon Bohn Gmelch is Professor of Anthropology at the University of San Francisco and Union College. She is the author or editor of ten books, coproducer of an ethnographic film, and the winner of several awards including Ireland’s Book of the Year. 

"A treasure trove of fieldwork experience! Where was this book when I was trying to uncover the mysteries of ethnography? If the devil is in the details, then the Gmelches have banished him with a richly woven tapestry of insights into the questions that we all are plagued with when doing fieldwork."—Alan Klein, author of Dominican Baseball: New Pride, Old Prejudice

"There is no better review for students of anthropology of the travails and exhilaration of ethnographic fieldwork than this examination of over forty years of their research by the indomitable and inexhaustible Gmelches. Whether with students or on their own, from Ireland to the Caribbean, Tanzania to Tasmania, Sitka to Napa Valley, among urban nomads, dockworkers, migrants and baseball players, George and Sharon Bohn Gmelch show lSk