ABSTRACT
This chapter reflects on the shifting engagement of anthropologists with 'fieldwork', 'field sites', informants, and the discipline itself. It presents the recent concern with fieldwork and anthropological methods that emphasise the processes of mutual engagement between people, locations, and representations. They also seek to relate this critical reflection on the field and fieldwork to the kinds of ethnographic writing and anthropological knowledge that it produces. The chapter reflects on the use of anthropological knowledge not only within the discipline but also by those working in related fields and more distance professions. Gupta and Ferguson, Marcus and others have noted how the idea of travel to different geographical locations is key to the notion of the 'field' and to the project of anthropology itself. The chapter argues to clarify the parameters within which field-generated knowledge is itself produced if we are to understand how anthropology as a discipline functions, reproduces itself and shifts over time.
