Monday, January 19, 2009

I began reading Field Working: Reading and Writing Research thinking that is was more helpful to not have feelings about the certain culture you are studying.  It poses the problem of becoming bias. After reading the small entry about Ilongots and headhunting studied by Anthropologist Renato Rosaldo, it made me think more about being emotionally involved in the culture you're studying.  "Nothing in my own experience equipped me even to imagine the anger possible in bereavement until after Michelle Rosaldo's death in 1981. Only then was I in a position to grasp the force of what the Ilongots had repeatedly told me about grief, rage, and headhunting". (Rosaldo 9)  In his position, it took him feeling what the Ilongots were feeling to truly understand where they were coming from and receive more information about it.  
Going in to this reading a was strong on my feeling that while studying a culture you must be detached from the group.  Ending this certain part of the text, my position was changed.  There is always a chance of being bias, but if you are truly trying to inform then you will see that readers need to know the whole truth to be informed.  I think being more involved in a group than just an outsider could benefit the researcher and also the readers with the information you can get.

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