ABSTRACT
Fieldworkers anticipate some turbulence in settling in to a strange place in the field, but few prepare themselves for the shock of reintroduction to the familiar but sometimes unfathomable place from whence they came. Return from the field can be a depressing, disorienting experience for some who come back to their “normal” environments, a soul-searching time for many, and a non-event for others. However you respond to the potential culture shock of returning home after intense weeks, months, or years of fieldwork, you finally confront the need to pull the mass of data together into a manageable project. The initial months are often fraught with both organizational and emotional frustration, as well as the problems associated with becoming reaccustomed to the intellectual environment at home. In this chapter we deal with how to cope with the myriad problems of putting your work in a broader framework, organizing the data, and getting into writing.
