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Answer: Traditionally, anthropologists have studied nonindustrial, small-scale societies while living in remote places and frequently speaking languages different from those of researchers. However, while that kind of fieldwork continues, a lot of anthropological fieldwork is now conducted in large, industrialized Western societies. Therefore, not all anthropological fieldwork requires long-distance travel or the knowledge of a foreign language. Answer: Several different agencies fund anthropological fieldwork. Some agencies are part of the federal government, like the National Science Foundation, the National Institutes of Health, the Fulbright-Hays, and the Fulbright IIE, while other funding agencies are private nonprofit organizations, like the Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research. Funding is not given out to everyone who asks for it. Researchers submit grant proposals that explain the questions to be investigated, where the fieldwork will take place, what methods will be used to collect data, and why the researcher writing the proposal is well-suited to carry out the proposed research. Answer: The recognition and study of ongoing and inescapable flows of people, technology, images, and information are becoming increasingly important in anthropology. Ethnographic fieldwork is becoming more flexible, large-scale, multi-timed, and multi-sited. Anthropologists are paying more attention to "outsiders" (e.g., migrants, refugees, tourists, developers) who impinge on the places they study; to external organizations and forces, such as governments, businesses, and nongovernmental organizations; to the effects of power differentials on cultures; and to diversity within cultures and societies. Increasingly, the electronic mass media shape local cultures and perspectives by exposing people to global images and information. In fact, anthropologists are more and more focused on studying people in motion, such as those living on or near national borders, nomads, seasonal migrants, homeless and displaced people, immigrants, and refugees. |