ABSTRACT
Part 2 explains the complexities of what anthropologists do in the field. Long-term qualitative empirical fieldwork or ‘hanging out’ involves a method called participant observation. ‘Hanging out’ is fraught with contradiction and ethical conundrums. The goal of participant observation is to be involved in a culture like a member of that society, all while observing and studying that culture. The researcher must have a constant awareness of their contribution to and influence on participants and the research process, known as ‘reflexivity’. Part 2 explores the archival process, the choice of field site, living in a rural village, choosing key participants, mapping and the various methods used in the data collection process. A number of situations required active resistance: that fieldwork should involve a single village study; that ethics went beyond informed consent and sometimes involved power imposed by others; that victimised women cannot or will not tell their stories in ways that make sense to the ethnographer; and that data comes to the researcher in the most unexpected ways.
