The Innocent Anthropologist Summary

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In The Innocent Anthropologist, Nigel Barley travels to Cameroon to conduct fieldwork among the Dowayo people. This sounds easy enough, but once he was thrown into the midst of applying for grants, maintaining the proper I.D. and paperwork, and wrestling with the idle nature of Cameroonian Embassy employees, the process was anything but simple. First, Nigel had to pack what he needed -- adequate clothing, field journals, cameras, and film. Once in Cameroon, he was tossed from office to office in hopes of gaining a visa, and eventually succeeded. After finally tackling the struggle of preparing for fieldwork, he had to actually go out into the bush and do it. On the way to the mountains near Poli where the Dowayo live, he encountered several school boys and gave them a lift to school in his vehicle. To break the silence in the car, he asked them if they were Dowayo, and they were offended, stating they were Dupa. This was slightly disheartening; it seemed his first encounter with the Dowayo would have to wait a bit longer. During this waiting period, he was a guest at a …show more content…

First, learning about ethnocentrism at the beginning of the semester was an excellent basis for the general understanding of the book. While I personally find myself to be open-minded, I also can recognize when I am being ethnocentric when hearing about how others live throughout the world. Being able to recognize this, and then suppress it in order to absorb information best, is very helpful. Secondly, coming in with some knowledge as to how tribal societies operate, it was easier to make sense of why the Dowayo act in the ways they do. I did not feel the need to ask why they don’t have leaders, or why their “court” is executed with such loose rules. Starting the book with the knowledge of ethnocentrism and tribal societies really helped aid in the understanding of the entire

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