1, what is fieldwork in anthropology? Its uniqueness?

Answer
Fieldwork is the most important method by which cultural anthropologists
gather data to answer their research questions. While interacting on a daily basis
with a group of people, cultural anthropologists document their observations and
perceptions and adjust the focus of their research as needed. They typically spend
a few months to a few years living among the people they are studying.

The cultural anthropologist’s goal during fieldwork is to describe a group of

people to others in a way that makes strange or unusual features of the culture
seem familiar and familiar traits seem extraordinary. The point is to help people
think in new ways about aspects of their own culture by comparing them with
other cultures.

Fieldwork is investigation in anthropology where the research stays in or

visits the place of investigation for long period of time , not less than a year
receives first hand experience and collects data.

Anthropologists depend on fieldwork as their ultimate source of gathering

valid data. It is because, compared to the other methods, fieldwork yields a lot of
data about the lifestyles of people and the meaning they attribute to their
actions. Fieldwork also teaches the distinction between ‘what people think ‘,’what
people say ‘,’what people do ‘,and ‘what people say they ought to have done’.

Fieldwork is a kind of characteristics custom, a procedure that assists

anthropologists in the inquiry of human life. It offers a huge level of flexibility to
the fieldworker as he/she can modify approaches and techniques of investigation
and collection of data and create and add newer processes.
What makes anthropological field work unique?
This allows anthropologists to put people first as we analyze how societies
work. Even though the whole world is the field, anthropologists focus on details
and patterns of human life. Fieldwork is unique in that , it deals with primary
rather than secondary data, emphasizes inductive rather than deductive
reasoning, and focuses on immediate personal experience rather than armchair
theorizing.

Through fieldwork , the social anthropologist seeks a detailed and intimate

understanding of the context of social actions and relations. Where fieldwork is
conducted within museums, archives or cultural institutions , the process can be
similar in that the social anthropologist seeks to understand the underlying
symbolic and cultural meanings of a text or collection of objects .