The books that give us insight into human motives and experience often are based on fieldwork: people spending time with others where those others live and work. In the World Observed sixteen researchers tell how their fieldwork experiences have been transmuted into understanding. The settings range from a women's prison in Indiana to a village in Egypt, from a streetcorner in Palermo to a gypsy funeral in New York. The authors - anthropologists, folklorists, sociologists, historians - relate their struggles to find meaning in the chaos of data and the ethical problems they had to confront and resolve. Their fascinating stories offer fresh insight into how we know what we know.
From entertainment to realization in Navajo fieldwork / Barre Toelken -- Four moments / Candace Slater -- Inquiry and epiphany in the culture of capitalism / Dan Rose -- I'm going to say it now / Alessandro Portelli -- Living dolls / Nancy Kalow -- From home to prison / Carol Burke -- The genius of Palermo / Michael Buonanno -- Crossing and recrossing the line and other moments of understanding / Dwight F. Reynolds -- Absorbed in gospel music / Lynwood Montell -- On time, truth, and epiphanies / Ellen J. Stekert -- Strategy and tactics in fieldwork / Neil V. Rosenberg -- Oral and written tradition / Edward D. Ives -- Stumbling upon Lancashire mill culture in New England / Anthony G. Barrand -- How I learned what a crock was / Howard S. Becker -- Who's gypsy here? / Carol Silverman -- The perfect informant / Bruce Jackson.