The Challenges of Human Relations in Ethnographic Enquiry: Examples frorn Arctic and Subarctic Fieldwork

• Main Author: Beaudry, Nicole
• Format: Book Part
• Language: unknown
• Published: Oxford University PressNew York, NY 1996
• Subjects: Arctic; Subarctic
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780195109108.003.0004; https://academic.oup.com/book/chapter-pdf/52468442/isbn-9780195109108-book-part-4.pdf

Abstract Once a journey is designed, equipped, and put in process, a new factor enters and takes over. A trip, a safari, an exploration, is an entity, different from all other journeys. It has personality, temperament, individuality, uniqueness. A journey is a per son in itself; no two are alike. And all plans, safeguards, policing and coercion are fruitless. We find after years of struggle that we do not take a trip; a trip takes us. John Steinbeck’s wonderfully witty and judicious remark could easily apply to most of my field experiences and probably to those of many other researchers. Although it is seldom stated clearly in our writings, fieldworkers in any of the social sciences frequently need to alter their research plans at the last minute. These changes are felt to be beyond their command. Despite belief in the value of our scientific goals, despite painstaking preparations and appropriate behavior, the fact that both researcher and research objects are human beings cannot be dismissed. When human beings of different cultural backgrounds are brought together, their inter action proves difficult to predict.