Making and Keeping Anthropological Field Notes

Abstract

The individual who is resident among the people of another culture, even though he is not a professional anthropologist, has marvelous opportunities for observation, for casual or intensive interviewing, and for other ways of gaining extensive information about the people around him and their way of life. He often has a very real advantage over many professional anthropologists in the possibility of such contacts over a period of many years. Only a small percentage, however, of missionaries and other such residents abroad make any kind of systematic record of what they learn. This article discusses briefly the advantages of record-keeping, and makes some practical suggestions.