Barbara Glowczewski

Relations and products: dilemmas of reciprocity in fieldwork

The relationship between fieldworkers (anthropologists, archaeologists, linguists, historians) and people we have variously called research participants, informants, consultants, collaborators, teachers and friends, lies at the foundation of productive ethnographic research. While there is a plethora of publications on fieldwork methods and on the art of ethnographic writing, here we specifically focus on the products of field research, both tangible and intangible. In particular, we explore the nature and consequences of the exchanges that take place between researchers, their host communities and civil society. We argue that our research products play a crucial role not only in the relationships we develop through fieldwork but also take on a life of their own beyond the fields of their original production.