SUBJECT, METHOD AND SCOPE SUBJECT, METHOD AND SCOPE objective, scientific view of things. The habit of treating with Mours only to"do the village. It should not even be near a self-satisfied frivolity what is really serious to the ethno anough to fy to at any moment for recreation. For the native not the natural companion for a white man, and after you that is to say, the native, s cultural and mental peculiarities and have been working with him for several hours, seeing how he grapher; the cheap rating of what to him is a scientific treasure s his gardens, or letting him tell you items of folk-lore, amateur's writing, I found in the tone of the majority of white discussing his customs, you will naturally hanker after the Indeed, in my first piece of Ethnographic research on the beyond reach of this, you go for a solitary walk for an hour or residents. mpany of your own kind. But if you are alone in a village South coast, it was not until I was alone in the district that I 1, return again and then quite naturally seek out the native began to make some headway: and, at any rate, I found out society, this time as a relief from loneliness, just as you would ethnographer's magic, by which he is able to evoke the real Intercourse, you learn to know him, and you become familiar spirit of the natives, the true picture of tribal life As usual with his customs and beliefs far better than when he is a paid, success can o There is all the difference between a sporadic plunging into e company of natives, and being really in contact with them What does this latter mean On the Ethnographer's side, it effort. or trouble. The principles of method can be grouped means that his life in the village, which at first is a strange marv under three main headings; first of all, naturally, the student Sometimes unpleasant, sometimes must possess real scientific aims, and know the values and adventure, soon adopts quite a natural course very much in criteria of modern ethnography. Secondly, he ought to put harmony with his surroundings Soon after I had established myself in Omarakana dtro without other white. men, right among the natives. Finally, briand Islands), I began to take part, in a way, in the village himself in good conditions of work, that is, in the main, to live anipulating and fixing his evidence. A few words must beI take personal interest in the gossip and the developments of the he has to apply a number of special methods of collecting. said about these three foundation stones of field work, beginning sm: ll village occurrences to wake up every morning to a day with the second as the most elementary senting itself to me more or less as it does to the native. I would get out from under my mosquito net, to find around me d also to the season Proper conditions for ethnographic work. These, as sal they get up and begin their labours early or late, as work onsist mainly in cutting oneself off from the company ofother presses. As I went on my morning walk through the village, I white men, and remaining in as close contact with the natives could see intimate details of family life, of toilet, cooking as possible, which really can only be achieved by camping right t taking of meals; I could see the arrangements for the day's in their villages(see Plates I and If). It is very nice to have ork, people starting on their errands, or groups of men and base in a white man compound for the stores, and to knot women busy at some manufacturing tasks(see Plate IIl) But it a refuge there in times of sickness and surfeit of native Quarrels, jokes, family scenes, events usually trivial, some must be far enough away not to become a permanent mes dramatic but always significant, formed the atmosphere in which you live and from which you emerge at fixed of my daily life, as well as of theirs. It must be remembered ere a few that as the natives saw me constantly every day, they ceased to Raffael be interested or alarmed, or made self-conscious by my Brudo, another pearl trader; an
8 SUBJECT, METHOD AND SCOPE SUBJECT, METHOD AND SCOPE presence, and I ceased to be a disturbing element in the tribal raining in theory, and acquaintance with its latest results, is life which I was to study, altering it by my very approach, as not identical with being burdened with"preconceived ideas always happens with a new-comer to every savage community a man sets out on an expedition, determined to prove certain In fact, as they knew that I would thrust my nose into ever hypotheses, if he is incapable of cha ews constantly thing, even where a well-mannered native would not dream of intruding, they finished by regarding me as part and parcel of idence, needless to say his work will be worthless. But the their life, a necessary evil or nuisance, mitigated by donation of tobacco laote problems he brings with him into the field, the more he is he habit of moulding his theories according to fa s, and of Later on in the day, whatever happened was reach, and there was no possibility of its escaping my notice. equipped for the work., Preconceived ideas are pernicious Alarms about the sorcerer's approach in the evening, one or two big, really important quarrels and rifts within the community endowment of a scientific thinker, and these problems are first cases of illness, attempted cures and deaths, magical rites revealed to the observer by his theoretical studie which had to be performed, all these I had not to pursue, fearful In Ethnology the early efforts of Bastian, of missing them, but they took place under my very eyes,at e German Volkerpsychologen have remoulded the older my own doorstep, so to speak(see Plate IV). And it must be crude information of travellers, missionaries, etc, and have shown us the importance of applying deeper conceptions and is essential to investigate it at the very moment of happen-i discarding crude and misleading ones ing, because the natives cannot but talk about it, are too The concept of animism superseded that of"fetichism"or excited to be reticent, and too interested to be mentally lazy in supplying details. Also, over and over again, I committed of the classificatory systems of relationship paved the way for breaches of etiquette, which the natives, familiar enough with the brilliant, modern researches on native sociology in the me, were not slow in pointing out. I had to learn how to field-work of the Cambridge school. The psychological behave, and he feeling "for analysis of the German thinkers has brought forth an abundant native good and bad manners. With this, and with the crop of most valuable information in the results obtained by capacity of enjoying their company and sharing some of their the recent German expeditions to Africa, South America and games and amusements, I began to feel that i was indeed in k and others have already, and will no doubt still for a long time conditi being able to carry on successful field work. inspire field workers and lead them to new results. The field worker relies entirely upon inspiration from theory. Of course he may be also a theoretical thinker and worker, and there he But the Ethnographer has not only to spread his nets in can draw on himself for stimulus. But the two functions are the right place, and wait for what will fall into them. He must separate, and in actual research they have to be separated and drive his both in ti follow it up to its most inaccessible lairs. And that leads us As always happens when scientific interest turns towards to the more active methods of pursuing ethnographic evidence. and begins to labour on a field so far only prospected by the It has been mentioned at the end of division iii that the riosity of amateurs, Ethnology has introduced law and order Ethnographer has to be inspired by the knowledge of the most into what seemed chaotic and freakish. It has transformed of scientific study, by its for us the sensational, wild and unaccountable world of I shall not enlarge upon this subject, except by way 'of one remark, to avoid the possibility of misunderstanding. Good Man and the word Ethnology for speculative and com