Chronicling Cultures: Long-Term Field Research in Anthropology - Softcover

...a refreshing contribution to our knowledge of long-term research projects...this robust volume can lead readers to raise broader methodological and theoretical concerns that intersect with both long-standing and current debates in anthroplogy...[an] impressive volume, uniting between two covers documentation of some of anthroplogy's better known long-term ethnographic projects...extremely valuable in terms of presenting a broad and grounded exploration of the benefits and challenges of long-term research...a very informative and thought-provoking collection of statements and revelations. -- Dr. Maximillian C. Forte, Dept. of Anthropology and Sociolog, University College of Cape Breton, Sydney, Canada * Forum: Qualitative Research, Vol. 5, No.1, Jan. 2004 * ...superbly evoke[s] the fieldwork endeavor, its unique promise for illuminating the human condition, the several challenges that it entails, and the fundamental epistemological, methodological, and ethical issues that attend it....of great value to both professionals and students. The Kemper and Royce volume encapsulates a good deal of the most important and insightful anthropological work of the past half century or so and does so in a way that enables the reader to glimpse the human dimensions of these inescapably deeply personal endeavors. -- Steven Piker, Swarthmore College * Field Methods, Vol.16, No. 2, May 2004 * Royce and Kemper unobtrusively provide a distinctive body of material to prompt tomorrow. * Journal Of The Royal Anthropological Institute *

Some field sites have hosted anthropologists for as long as half a century. Chronicling Cultures collects articles from principals of many of the longest and best-known anthropology projects from four continents-the Kung, Harvard Chiapas Project, Gwembe Valley, Tzintzuntzan, and Navajo among others. These projects have brought a new understanding of change and persistence in communities over time. They have forced researchers to develop methods of involving local communities in research, of using data over generations of scholars, and of resolving ethical issues of research versus advocacy. The projects range from individual scholars who return "home" year after year to large-scale institutionalized projects involving many researchers and numerous studies. This volume will be an important addition to the literature on fieldwork, on the history of ethnology, and on ethnographers' role in their host cultures.