ABSTRACT
The title of a novel, Fieldwork, perched on the library shelf, captured my attention (Berlinski 2007). The book tells the fascinating story of Martiya, a young anthropologist from UC Berkeley who goes to Thailand to conduct doctoral research among Thai hill tribes and later returns to live there. Living with the same people is a US missionary whose family has worked to convert the people to Christianity for many years. When the missionary converts Martiya’s lover, a local man, and as a result the lover leaves her, Martiya kills the missionary. This is a novel. Convicted of murder, Martiya ends up in prison where she writes brilliant ethnographies. The novel, written by a US journalist who had plied his trade in Thailand, is based on the conversion to Christianity of the Lisu people of northern Thailand studied by anthropologist Paul Durrenberger (1989).
