Fieldwork Identities in the Caribbean

by Erin B. Taylor

What is it really like to do fieldwork? Answers to this question are as diverse as the researchers and the field sites they choose. Anthropologists no longer fit the stereotype of white Westerners going to exotic places to study people very different from themselves. Rather, anthropologists now come from a variety of backgrounds, and their identities are complicated, even to them. This book addresses how identity affects research in the contemporary world, where field sites are no longer static. Each chapter describes how the author negotiated aspects of identity in the field, including race, nationality, class, gender, religion, and sexuality. The authors are all early-career researchers who have conducted fieldwork in different Caribbean nations, including the Dominican Republic, Haiti, Cuba, Puerto Rico, Jamaica, Trinidad, and Belize.

258 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2010