the word fieldwork is an interesting word to use to describe what it is that anthropologists do because it's a term that's borrowed from the Natural Sciences and it's meant to contrast with lab work mostly it's a lot of talking it's observing conversations that people are having not only as anthropologists do we talk to people and ask them what they think but we do things with them alongside them so it's about connecting aspects of social life and and cultural life that people don't automatically connect I think that's what anthropology does it's a process of trying to gather information where you realize things are not always apparent and it's only by of being there as much as as possible on a regular basis that you can sometimes get a glimpse into people's inner lives okay I'm coming to visit you all I'm doing field work at a Haitian Social Service organization that has historically served Haitian refugees and immigrants in the Greater Boston area I thought it was a very interesting site to think about in terms of questions that came up in the research that I had done in Haiti how is it that communities of Haitians who were able to leave Haiti were able to reestablish new lives in another country learn to negotiate a whole new system a whole new culture new language so of trying to see what does it mean to be an American what does it mean to be a citizen what does it mean to be an American for those who are coming from abroad here we're in londonairy Vermont to study the culture and economy of Farmstead and artisan cheese making in the United States one thing that I'm interested in looking at is how people learn how to make cheese and some people have made cheese in their kitchens for years others have this idea that they're going to go into business and they take courses and they read books and sort of approach it more formally so do you have a working definition of what makes an artisan cheese and artisan cheese I don't I think as long as you've got a cheese maker using his or her hands in the process uh and using their senses to determine what to move on to the next step it's Artis and I can't really Define it any better than that so it's an interesting place to look at expertise because its expert knowledge is not a guarantee that you're going to make a good cheese put it in at around 9:45 945 you know some people measure temperature and they're very fastidious and they only do go to the next step when the pH is at exactly the right point and other people just say okay it's ready you know not all chees makers uh are are good at math their eyes drift off you know when you start to talk numbers and so you've taken cellular material or genetic material from the life in that swath of ocean and you've brought it here absolutely so what is what happens when you bring it here to do field work among scientists and among the marine biologists that I worked with in particular entailed engaging with their everyday practice which meant doing things in the laboratory with them doing things at Sea so I went on a number of research cruises with them to answer particular questions ecological questions I was able to dive in the research submersible Alvin which is a small 7t in diameter titanium bubble I want to know in this moment of environmental crisis global warming what the Ocean looks like to the scientists who describe it so I'm looking at the practice of the production of authoritative knowledge about in this case the ocean world what do you think has spend some of the challenges and trying to get like adequate health information to the people that you serve people unfortunately who are being left out are those undocumented because you need to have proof of citizenship one of the things that is a constant theme in this building of this program is questions of citizenship citizenship education knowledge about law knowledge about rights all of those are Central themes to security let's say for example you have all this you are you call S they still pay you he calls and sick and they don't pay him what is it that you have that he doesn't have benefit yeah yeah it's been interesting to see what is it like for people who are living in those kind of gray spaces of illegality in a way I think anthropologists today many of them are looking at questions of law questions of health questions of relations of power between the Sexes those are all ethical and moral questions would you say there's a lot of discrimination you know that we're against against Haitians or against immigrants or against wh imig so in many ways anthropologists Can Shed light on dimensions of human experience that are not readily apparent we participate we observe we watch we use our own subjective and firsthand experience here it is the Bambino as the Italians called the baby cheese so when I'm helping make cheese that's participant observation which is an important part of field workor I don't think I could have really gotten how physical the work is until I sterilized 20 milk cans which are very heavy and they have to be sterilized incredibly carefully you're really really invested in concerned and curious to the point that you want to experience it yourself and then it helps you to ask better questions more informed questions so in some interesting ways the transformation of of lab techniques and the the coming online of genomics and bioinformatics has has changed the way that you shuttle back and forth between lab and field um would you say that that's true I would I would say that that's that's absolutely true too um I think the view of a lot of us now is that it's this iterative cycle almost you know you you you make some observations and this is how it's always worked actually you have to go back right to the field um to the ocean to to test your predictions from those observations I think the surprising thing for me in doing anthropological fieldwork among marine biologists was how similar our questions were about fieldwork itself how is it that you do extended research in the field and come up with a story about what it is you're trying to describe that's at all representative so oceanography and ethnography both share the conundrum of how to represent the world so in in a very real sense despite our abilities to sense you know molecules you know indirectly or our ability to sense the ocean from space actually going out on ships is in my opinion going to continue to remain important goodbye [Music] Atlantis I'm what field workor allows in in my view is a way to see what's not generally on the surface it's a it's a very demanding process but it's it's for me very rewarding to be able to work with people and for them to trust you enough to allow you into their lives I think that's that's kind of the most fruitful part for me [Music] [Music] n [Music]