“This is an excellent volume. Simply put, no other text as effectively engages and compels my students to undertake ethnographic fieldwork of their own. The essays wonderfully convey the many challenges and rewards of doing anthropology, and truly engage the imagination.” — Antonio Sorge, University of Prince Edward Island

“One of the most engaging and provocative contributions of this book is the emphasis on the ethnographer as an emotional being. While this is not a novel concept in ethnography, the originality of these pieces lies in their seeming unfinished and rough-hewn qualities. And, indeed, they are depictions of fieldwork in progress and not the nuggets of ‘lessons learned’ in the field . . . these are fledgling scholars trying to make sense of themselves, their relationship to the people they study and, most important, to a general audience, to anthropology itself. At times they seem courageous, other times naïve. Yet like the up-close-and-personal head shot on television, they draw the reader in and keep their attention riveted.” — International Review of Modern Sociology (Spring 2007)

“Making the challenges of ethnography visible in the lives of other students doing it inspires future ethnographers.” — Kerry D. Feldman, University of Alaska

“This volume presents fieldwork as it is today, and the essays are really good. Students will get more useful information out of this book than they will from reading the conventional, distilled, post hoc accounts of earlier anthropologists. The field situation has changed greatly in recent years, and the editors have put together an important guide to this new terrain.” — Paul Shankman, University of Colorado, Boulder

“This is a phenomenal book! Finally, an unabashed look at fieldwork—with all its attending pitfalls and pratfalls—unburdened by the yoke of theory. The variety of subjects and locales covered in the stories makes the book a great reader for the whole semester. The essays facilitate interesting discussions about the ‘anthropological encounter’ useful for an introductory audience.” — David Chaudoir, University of Arkansas

“This concept is brilliant! Not only is fieldwork learned by experience, but fieldwork is the experience.” — Rita Sakitt, Suffolk Community College

Fieldwork and Writing From the Field (David M. Hoffman and Andrew M. Gardner)

Swimming Through Fieldwork: Constructing Trust in the Mexican Caribbean (David M. Hoffman)

Sleeping with One Eye Open: The Perils of Fieldwork in a Brazilian Juvenile Prison (Kristen Drybread)

Pangs of Guilt: Transnational Ethnography, Motherhood, and Moral Dilemmas in Central America (Kate Goldade)

The Unwelcome Guest: Episodes from a Year in Bahrain (Andrew M. Gardner)

Of Goats and Foreigners: Research Lessons on Soqotra Island, Yemen (Nathalie Peutz)

Anger Management: Working Through Identity and Objectification in Indonesia (Greg Simon)

Fieldwork in Coca Country: Investigating Democracy and Development in the Bolivian Andes (Caroline S. Conzelman)

Dispatch from the Sahelian Range: Renegotiating Expectations and Relationships among the Wodaabe of Niger (Karen Marie Greenough)

Belief in “Cancer Alley”: Church, Chemicals, and Community in New Sarpy, Louisiana (Gwen Ottinger)

Laboring under Illusionism: Notes from the Study of French Magic (Graham M. Jones)

Bonding with the Field: On Researching Surrogate Motherhood Arrangements in Israel (Elly Teman)

Erasing SARS: Outbreak Reflections on the Ethnographic Process (Megan Tracy)

Initiating Change: Doing Action Research in Japan (Akihiro Ogawa)

The Other City of Angels: Ethnography with the Bangkok Police (Eric J. Haanstad)