Striving for Unity: A Conversation with Roy Rappaport
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
2006
Abstract
Excerpt: During my second and third years in graduate school at University of Michigan, I transcribed 21 taped conversations between Roy Rappaport, who his friends call “Skip,” and Tom Fricke that took place from May 1996 to February 1997. The content of these conversations, as well illustrated in material excerpted here, is of value not only to established scholars but also, most appreciably perhaps, to those in training. In my own case, planning for fieldwork and beginning preparations for my preliminary exams, the unique insight I gained through detailed recollections and comments of this major figure was immensely influential to my emerging understanding of the development of an intellectual life and professional career in anthropology. Based on his 1960s fieldwork with the Tsembaga Maring of the north Central Highlands of Papua New Guinea and his principle ethnography to which nearly all later work returned, Pigs for the Ancestors: Ritual in the Ecology of a New Guinea People (1968, Yale University Press) offers scant insight to the ethnographer himself as participant–observer. The conversations between Tom and Skip help shed light on the experience of Skip as ethnographer in the field in ways that are always immensely instructive and frequently entertaining. Students of anthropology are especially fortunate to have this rich documentation of personal field experience.
Recommended Citation
Hoey, B., & Fricke, T. (2006). Striving for Unity: A Conversation with Roy Rappaport. Michigan Discussions in Anthropology. Vol. 16(1): 33-65.
Comments
The html version and metadata page are at http://hdl.handle.net/2027/spo.0522508.0016.104.
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