FOCUS ON MAN

...the fourth study, among Af­ricans of the Rhodesian copperbelt in 1953-54, was directed toward communi­cation through mass media, thus in­volving some methodology she had not previously employed...

...The underlying theme throughout the the book is the elucidation of the cultur­al anthropological methodology called "participant observation," in which the researcher depends not upon re­construction of ways of life or upon the writings of others for understand­ing, but rather upon being there him­self, noting, recording, questioning, and, above all, participating in the af­fairs of the society to the extent al­lowed by its members...

...It is Hortense Powdermaker's con­tention—and rightly so—that success and failure, besides being relative, de­pend to a considerable extent upon the personality of the individual re­searcher, as well as his ability both to "step in and out of society, to be involved and detached" at the same time...

...This difficult tightrope, with all its obvious perils, makes anthropo­logical field work the immensely diffi­cult, but extraordinarily rewarding, ex­perience that it is...

...Reviewed by Alan P. Merriam HPH E BROAD discipline of anthropoid ogy remains something of a puzzle to most laymen, for it is made up of a number of seemingly disparate parts, each apparently going its own way and unrelated to the others...

...for the anthro­pology graduate student, it adds to the meager literature on the trials, prob­lems, methods, and great joys of field research...

...In this, the most detailed accounting in the book, she writes of her initial experience, how she began her work, what that work entailed, how she lived, her role in and out of the society she studied, and, through­out, her own reactions to these and the many other situations she encoun­tered...

...for the non-anthropologist social scientist, it elucidates a major aspect of cultural anthropological methodology...

...Miss Powdermaker began her field work in 1929-30 in the small village of Lesu on the east coast of New Ire­land, an island of the Bismarck Archi­pelago southeast of New Guinea in the Pacific...

...that it demands physi­cal proximity of the field worker to the people he studies, knowledge of their language, and psychological in­volvement...

...Her second study, in the Negro­white community of Indianola, Missis­sippi, in 1932, 1933, and 1934, is equally absorbing, and, of course, a very different situation from Lesu...

...All parts of...

...It is Miss Pow­dermaker's view that nothing can re­place this method of gathering ma­terials, though many other techniques supplement it...

...For the layman, Stranger and Friend provides insight into how a cultural anthropologist works...

...The inherent ambiguities of this ap­proach," she says, "are only a reflec­tion of those which exist in life itself...

...each depends in some part upon the knowledge accumulated by the others...

...But underlying this external chaotic appearance is a single common theme which draws all anthropologists together—that theme is the study of man in all the be­wildering facets of his history, physi­cal form, social behavior, and cultural beliefs and practices...

...Her aim is to show how the cultural anthropologist works, what his methods are, and, in reference to herself, some of the rea­sons for one field worker's successes and failures in achieving understand­ing of the peoples she studied...

...If the author's "analysis" of her own personality and its effect upon her work is somewhat disappointing, her recounting of four major field expe­riences (which forms the major portion of the book) provides rich internal contrasts and illustrates the enormous psychological resilience required of the cultural anthropologist...

...an­thropology focus upon man...

...Her anal­ysis of her work reaffirms the conclu­sion and leaves us with a better un­derstanding of all she has done and, indeed, of cultural anthropology...

...Hortense Powdermaker, currently professor of anthropology at Queens College in New York City, is a cul­tural anthropologist whose work has spanned a number of diverse human societies, from Melanesia through the United States and on to Africa...

...The physical an­thropologist concentrates upon man as a biological organism through time, the archaeologist reconstructs man's vanished cultures, the anthropological linguist studies the structure and mean­ing of man's languages, and the cul­tural or social anthropologist views man's behavior in its many forms throughout the world...

...all are interrelated...

...She is quite right—participant ob­servation rests upon the basis of the interplay of personalities of the re­searcher and the people he studies...

...and that the very nature of this crucial anthropological meth­odology with its inherent uncertain­ties and imperfections (arising in part from the personality of the investiga­tor) means that anthropology must re­main essentially both humanistic and scientific at one and the same time...

...In Stranger and Friend she describes the joy and sorrows, the difficulties and rewards encountered by the cultural anthropologist in his field work, through analysis of her own experi­ences in four societies...

...Her third field trip, to Hollywood in 1946-47, was disappointing to her, and it receives relatively scant attention in the book...

...without detachment, he can never move beyond the people to the deeper analytical understanding of their be­havior...

...Without involvement, the investi­gator can never see people as people...

...There is no way of avoiding that, and no possible substitute for it...

...and for her fellow an­thropologists, Miss Powdermaker has provided a glimpse of herself as well as of the background to the books we know so well...

...Focus on Man STRANGER AND FRIEND: THE WAY OF AN ANTHROPOLOGIST, by Hortense Pow­dermaker...