Who Am I and What Am I Doing Here? : Learning to Take Yourself and Your Experiences Seriously
Doing fieldwork is itself a learning process, and it can be a profoundly educational one, yet it can simultaneously be bewildering, terrifying, and the situation itself can produce an existential crisis. This modest essay talks about my own experiences with such issues. It is organized through a ser...
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ftunivhelsihelda:oai:helda.helsinki.fi:10138/573580 2024-04-21T08:01:17+00:00 Who Am I and What Am I Doing Here? : Learning to Take Yourself and Your Experiences Seriously Frog, Mr. Helsinki Collegium for Advanced Studies Department of Cultures Folklore Studies 2024-03-22T11:28:04Z 19 application/pdf http://hdl.handle.net/10138/573580 eng eng INSTITUTE FOR THE STUDY OF RELIGIONS 10.17192/mjr.2024.25.8695 Kone Foundation Frog , M 2024 , ' Who Am I and What Am I Doing Here? Learning to Take Yourself and Your Experiences Seriously ' , Marburg journal of religion , vol. 25 , no. 1 , pp. 1–19 . https://doi.org/10.17192/mjr.2024.25.8695 ORCID: /0000-0001-5967-6281/work/156150001 http://hdl.handle.net/10138/573580 c0021d64-998e-48b4-9c2f-e29bc02cc530 cc_by_nc_sa info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess openAccess 6160 Other humanities Folklore Ethnology Comparative Religion Article publishedVersion 2024 ftunivhelsihelda 2024-03-27T17:50:07Z Doing fieldwork is itself a learning process, and it can be a profoundly educational one, yet it can simultaneously be bewildering, terrifying, and the situation itself can produce an existential crisis. This modest essay talks about my own experiences with such issues. It is organized through a series of cases that include encounters with a ‘last singer’ of kalevalaic poetry in Finland, drum-dancers in East Greenland, a ram-sacrifice in the Republic of Karelia, and a perambulation into digital ethnography. Everyone’s experiences with fieldwork are unique, but these examples illustrate how your imagination of what ‘fieldwork’ is and who is qualified to do it can be a stumbling block that you unwittingly throw in front of yourself. A key point here is that anyone can do fieldwork, and, especially when you are just starting out, it is normal to feel stressed and uncertain, to blunder through situations and make mistakes. I set out my own experiences here with the hope that others can learn lessons from them more quickly than I did. The highlights of these lessons are quite basic: get permissions with full disclosure; take better notes; be aware of ethical issues; if you are there to learn from others, be prepared to find your way collaboratively; don’t underestimate the value of your experiences; and remember to breathe. Peer reviewed Article in Journal/Newspaper East Greenland Greenland karelia* Republic of Karelia HELDA – University of Helsinki Open Repository |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
HELDA – University of Helsinki Open Repository |
op_collection_id |
ftunivhelsihelda |
language |
English |
topic |
6160 Other humanities Folklore Ethnology Comparative Religion |
spellingShingle |
6160 Other humanities Folklore Ethnology Comparative Religion Frog, Mr. Who Am I and What Am I Doing Here? : Learning to Take Yourself and Your Experiences Seriously |
topic_facet |
6160 Other humanities Folklore Ethnology Comparative Religion |
description |
Doing fieldwork is itself a learning process, and it can be a profoundly educational one, yet it can simultaneously be bewildering, terrifying, and the situation itself can produce an existential crisis. This modest essay talks about my own experiences with such issues. It is organized through a series of cases that include encounters with a ‘last singer’ of kalevalaic poetry in Finland, drum-dancers in East Greenland, a ram-sacrifice in the Republic of Karelia, and a perambulation into digital ethnography. Everyone’s experiences with fieldwork are unique, but these examples illustrate how your imagination of what ‘fieldwork’ is and who is qualified to do it can be a stumbling block that you unwittingly throw in front of yourself. A key point here is that anyone can do fieldwork, and, especially when you are just starting out, it is normal to feel stressed and uncertain, to blunder through situations and make mistakes. I set out my own experiences here with the hope that others can learn lessons from them more quickly than I did. The highlights of these lessons are quite basic: get permissions with full disclosure; take better notes; be aware of ethical issues; if you are there to learn from others, be prepared to find your way collaboratively; don’t underestimate the value of your experiences; and remember to breathe. Peer reviewed |
author2 |
Helsinki Collegium for Advanced Studies Department of Cultures Folklore Studies |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Frog, Mr. |
author_facet |
Frog, Mr. |
author_sort |
Frog, Mr. |
title |
Who Am I and What Am I Doing Here? : Learning to Take Yourself and Your Experiences Seriously |
title_short |
Who Am I and What Am I Doing Here? : Learning to Take Yourself and Your Experiences Seriously |
title_full |
Who Am I and What Am I Doing Here? : Learning to Take Yourself and Your Experiences Seriously |
title_fullStr |
Who Am I and What Am I Doing Here? : Learning to Take Yourself and Your Experiences Seriously |
title_full_unstemmed |
Who Am I and What Am I Doing Here? : Learning to Take Yourself and Your Experiences Seriously |
title_sort |
who am i and what am i doing here? : learning to take yourself and your experiences seriously |
publisher |
INSTITUTE FOR THE STUDY OF RELIGIONS |
publishDate |
2024 |
url |
http://hdl.handle.net/10138/573580 |
genre |
East Greenland Greenland karelia* Republic of Karelia |
genre_facet |
East Greenland Greenland karelia* Republic of Karelia |
op_relation |
10.17192/mjr.2024.25.8695 Kone Foundation Frog , M 2024 , ' Who Am I and What Am I Doing Here? Learning to Take Yourself and Your Experiences Seriously ' , Marburg journal of religion , vol. 25 , no. 1 , pp. 1–19 . https://doi.org/10.17192/mjr.2024.25.8695 ORCID: /0000-0001-5967-6281/work/156150001 http://hdl.handle.net/10138/573580 c0021d64-998e-48b4-9c2f-e29bc02cc530 |
op_rights |
cc_by_nc_sa info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess openAccess |
_version_ |
1796941528626626560 |