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Re: Being "ethnicized"
Ruby Rohrlich (rohrlich@GWIS2.CIRC.GWU.EDU)
Tue, 13 Dec 1994 18:58:47 -0500
/there are many stories about anthropologists who work with native
Americans and become much less verbal, in consequence. Native Americans
don't do much idle chatter, it seems, and we who work with them become
much quieter. Ruby
On Tue, 13 Dec 1994, Sam Ball wrote:
> >
> >Have you become "ethnicized" by your fieldwork? Do you live/act/think
> >differently as a result? Is there anything in the lit on this process?
> >I'm not talking about the classic slur "going native"; I find that I
> >welcome people to my house differently, I express thanks differently, I
> >even drive differently as a result of my experiences.
> >
> >Cliff
> >
> As an archaeologist that began my carrear in a foreign land (admittedly in an
> American School in a foreign land) I deffinately observed myself and others
> being "altered" by the experiences we passed through. The school that I
> attended had programs where students from schools in the States would attend
> the school for a quarter or a year. It was always interesting to watch the
> progression these students went through. They would universally complain about
> where they were and the "lacks" they suffered; yet, upon return to the States
> they would be uncomfortable for a period of time while they re-adjusted to the
> culture Stateside. We refered to this a culture shock; although, the second
> half of what I described was usually ignored. The cultural differences that
> sparked these kinds of reactions were often glaring, but the differences that
> created the culture shock on return were often very subtile and would have an
> almost subliminal effect.
>
> Sam Ball
> Sam_Ball@NPS.GOV
>
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