are you studying anthropology or its just a passion?

Learning anthropology requires a lot of passion.

What do you think?

-hasan

yes it requiers alot of passion but not many people are studying anthropology.Are you a student? what you know about it?

Dear Kallyssia

I hope all is well with you.

I am still a student of anthropology. I have completed my bachelor and master degree in anthropology from Jahangirnagar University and currently working for a research project (www.welldev.org.uk) at Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies (BIDS). I am working in the northern part of Bangladesh in rural areas.

For me, anthropology is primarily a means to produce knowledge on various aspects of human life. It helps me to understand 'others'. My areas of interests are: nationalism, ethnicity, religion, class, gender, history, law, human rights, governance, economic system, globalization, power and urban issues etc. How these are structured in a community or in a place, processes related in social and cultural construction of the reality, politics behind the construction processes. Yes, lots of issues, however I love anthropology and I want to be an anthropologist.

What about you?

best wishes
hasan

hi,thank sfor reply,about me i can say that i am student in anthropology in the 4th year so i will graduate in june 2007.I love anthropology alot ,it helps you to understand many things ,the anthropologist is like someone who is sitting on the top of the highest building seeing everything under.Me too i want to become an anthropologist and i would be glad to keep in touch.

thank you too. It will be nice to share ideas about anthropology.

I wish you will be a great anthropologist. Love for anthropology can take you there.

Hi Kallysia, I'm a geologist but for me the anthropology, like other sciences, is a passion, and I agree with Hasan, who below says "anthropology is primarily a means to produce knowledge on various aspects of human life. It helps me to understand 'others'".
Now you are a graduate anthropologist, so let me to give you my congratulations, it is a very beatiful science.
My knowledge about anthropology is scarce and limited to my readings, sometimes "profane", I know, but writed for an "profane" anthropologist like me.
I wish you will be a successful anthropologist.
Forever,
Lucas

reading your post Kallyssia about that the anthropologist is like someone siting on the top of the highest building seeing everything under, I wonder if it is possible to do that. I study social anthropology and when in the fieldwork, I must say that is it hard to have this top above all position. It is correct that in the field the anthropologist is supposed to be neutral and not to interfere, but being above all is difficult. First of all, because anthropologists were and still are not supra partes, they are part of a culture, and they bring what they are and what they have learnt with them, also in the fieldwork. Sometimes when you are working in the field, you have to have a role or to involve yourself in some activities, in this way you are closer to the people you observe. Sometimes you are asked for your opinion from people or organizations you are studying.
This siting on the highest building and observe sometimes just doesn't work. One bust stay on the ground to understand. But this is of course just my opinion and my experience.

I wander who told you that it's requiered to stay neutral in the field, for one it's impossible, ang for two you can't be abouve yourself. Anyway as someone who had tens of fieldresearches, and hope to have much more, I don't find it hard simply 'cause I don't try to be above others. It's perfectly normal to be emphatic, more into one, or more options but as long as you do a little introspection and inform your readers about your preferations, you are clean and legitimate. And only in that way you're above others, the very fact that you realise your limits and inform others of it puts you a little above others.
All the best

The theories about fieldwork says anthropologists should be neutral, Jasmina. I can name you two theorist dealing with fieldwork, such as Bernard, H. R. (1995): Research Methods in Anthropology: Qualitative and Quantitative Approaches, second edition; Laine, M. de (2000): Fieldwork, Participation and Practice. Ethics and dilemmas in Qualitative Research,etc.
Besides, anthropologists were never neutral, just think of the first anthropologists, such as Malinowski. Do you think they were neutral in their fieldworks? Of course not, their position was defined by the culture they came from. One critic of this western position when observing other cultures is Gaugin, the painter, who was also a good observer and his book Moa Moa is a good example of it. It is difficult to be neutral, but one must have in mind which is his/her position in the fieldwork, otherwise the result of it is a work full of prejudice and one side position, as it was usually the case of anthropologists in the past. But now anthropologists who work in the field are aware of that.