Get 20M+ Full-Text Papers For Less Than $1.50/day. Start a 14-Day Trial for You or Your Team.

Learn More →

One Wedding and a Funeral: Reflections on Fieldwork, Community and Relationships in Cape York Peninsula

One Wedding and a Funeral: Reflections on Fieldwork, Community and Relationships in Cape York... Marrying into the community whose culture you are studying opens up philosophical and practical quandaries for the researcher and facilitates opportunities that are not otherwise available. Marriage brings with it many subtle shifts in relationships within the community. George Orwell (1937) speaks of class difference but could equally have been talking of cultural difference when he said ‘it is not so much a stone wall as a plate glass pane of an aquarium; it is so easy to pretend that it isn't there, and so impossible to get through it’. Does marriage enable you to cross that barrier? What difference, if any, is there in the nature of the resulting research and its benefits or otherwise to the community? This paper provides a glimpse into the author's journey as a researcher in Northern Cape York Peninsula, Australia and reflects on the way interpersonal relationships influenced her approach to research. http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png The Asia Pacific Journal of Anthropology Taylor & Francis

One Wedding and a Funeral: Reflections on Fieldwork, Community and Relationships in Cape York Peninsula

Download PDF
11 pages

One Wedding and a Funeral: Reflections on Fieldwork, Community and Relationships in Cape York Peninsula

Abstract

Marrying into the community whose culture you are studying opens up philosophical and practical quandaries for the researcher and facilitates opportunities that are not otherwise available. Marriage brings with it many subtle shifts in relationships within the community. George Orwell (1937) speaks of class difference but could equally have been talking of cultural difference when he said ‘it is not so much a stone wall as a plate glass pane of an aquarium; it is so easy to pretend...
Loading next page...
 
/lp/taylor-francis/one-wedding-and-a-funeral-reflections-on-fieldwork-community-and-vB7N0s440F
Publisher
Taylor & Francis
Copyright
Copyright The Australian National University
ISSN
1740-9314
eISSN
1444-2213
DOI
10.1080/14442213.2013.768696
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

Marrying into the community whose culture you are studying opens up philosophical and practical quandaries for the researcher and facilitates opportunities that are not otherwise available. Marriage brings with it many subtle shifts in relationships within the community. George Orwell (1937) speaks of class difference but could equally have been talking of cultural difference when he said ‘it is not so much a stone wall as a plate glass pane of an aquarium; it is so easy to pretend that it isn't there, and so impossible to get through it’. Does marriage enable you to cross that barrier? What difference, if any, is there in the nature of the resulting research and its benefits or otherwise to the community? This paper provides a glimpse into the author's journey as a researcher in Northern Cape York Peninsula, Australia and reflects on the way interpersonal relationships influenced her approach to research.

Journal

The Asia Pacific Journal of Anthropology – Taylor & Francis

Published: Apr 1, 2013

Keywords: Cape York Peninsula; Community-based Archaeology; Ethnography; Cross-Cultural Studies

References

  • Don't Depend on Me: Autonomy and Dependence in an Aboriginal Community in North Queensland
  • Beatin’ about the Bush
  • An Accidental Heritage
  • Red Devils and White Men