Ethnographic Fieldwork

Humans are naturally biased, we try to find comparisons with new situations and contrast them to our own environments. Ethnographic fieldwork involves, in a certain sense, dissociating from the comforts of our own cultures in order to immerse ourselves in the “comforts” of another. There are benefits and obstacles to this hands on course of field work. First, as stated above, Humans are biased. We will almost certainly hold our own cultural values as a standard, to which the culture we are studying will he held to. This can lead to a skewed collection of data, and an Etic viewpoint. Researchers will almost always have some degree of Etic in their conclusion in their research, but should devote the majority of research to keeping an Emic perspective, Finding that Emic perspective can be hard, as immersing yourself into a culture involves gaining the trust of the community you're trying to study. The
Burr urged for testing, and in testing was done, albeit after she left. Her choice to intervene in the lives of her subjects followed her throughout her professional life, leading her to either praise or disapproval by other anthropologists. But she was confident in her decision. I would choose to urge for testing. I would feel a sense of responsibility to use my knowledge of the disease to help safeguard the health of these boys. But this can be an arguable decision. Some might say that to use this “ knowledge” would be interfering and undermining the cultural beliefs of the subjects children are regarded as sexually innocent, and unable to contract a “ sexual” virus such as HIV. But due to the limits of a developing country, medical knowledge is often barred from the general public. I believe that if an anthropologist has knowledge that can potentially save a life, they have an ethical responsibility to use that knowledge to help their