ABSTRACT
This chapter1 discusses participant observation and the recording of Afghan refugee life histories, but more specifically, it describes a different face, that of the researcher. Although the collection of life histories is a particularly useful methodology in refugee research and proves cathartic for refugees, it presents problems for the researcher. In exploring this point, the chapter is divided into two sections: first, the context of flight and settlement are briefly described to set the stage for understanding the study and my reactions to that study. Included in this section are the details of the techniques used to gather and analyze the data, as well as a general discussion of the purpose and usefulness of recording refugee life stories. The second portion contains a discussion of the effects of refugee research on the anthropologist. During the course of my research, there were times I learned more about myself than I did about the Afghans; yet this self-discovery greatly enhanced the quality of the data as well as the focus of the study. While I discuss my personal experiences, I believe these are generalizable to the anthropological research endeavor.
