Field of Screams Revisited: Contending with Trauma in Ethnographic Fieldwork

Abstract

This article explores ways that trauma can come into tension with anthropological methods, specifically during fieldwork. It is based on findings from a survey conducted among anthropologists in 2023, which sought to understand preparation for fieldwork, including personal preparation, formal support and the ethics process; fieldwork experiences, including forms of trauma exposure and other aspects of context which may have heightened vulnerability or reactivity to traumatic stressors; researcher responses to accumulated distress of fieldwork; and finally, how supervisory relationships and institutional culture shape and influence researchers’ experience. We suggest that by looking at fieldwork experiences through the lens of trauma, we can achieve a rich and specific understanding of the extent to which this is an issue within the discipline. Doing so can enable us to think constructively about moving towards a trauma-informed anthropology.

Key Words: Fieldwork; trauma exposure; vicarious trauma; training; supervision; institutional culture