Dettwyler and Anderson Ethnographic Comparison

“Anthropology demands the open-mindedness with which one must look and listen, record in astonishment and wonder that which one would not have been able to guess.”

-Margaret Mead (Sex and Temperament in Three Primitive Societies (1935))

The words of Margaret Mead are echoed throughout the ethnographies First Fieldwork: The Misadventures of an Anthropologist by Barbara Anderson and Dancing Skeletons: Life and Death in West Africa by Katherine Dettwyler. These two anthropologists have created engaging ethnographies that allow the reader to have a much better understanding of anthropology. The differences and similarities between these women are exemplified in many aspects of their research including their methods, experience levels, language abilities, reactions to art and ethical decisions.

Differences can be found between these two women from the very start, by examining what type of anthropologist, and research that each conducts. Dettwyler, being a physical/biological anthropologist takes her research to the country of Mali to continue research and data collection concerning the health of children that she had begun many years before. The mobility required for Dettwylers’ research (she must travel throughout the country) is opposite than that of Anderson, a sociocultural anthropologist, whose research was in Taarnby, a small fishing village in Denmark, where she is assisting her husband in “documenting the cultural process that was transforming the tiny village’s traditional dependence on the sea to a pattern of encroaching urbanization and dependence on nearby Copenhagen.” (Anderson, pg.3)

An important factor that plays a large part in both ethnographies is the issue of language. Unfortunately, Anderson has more to overcome in some ways than Dettwyler because she does not speak Danish, the language of Taarnby and must learn as she goes, whereas Dettwyler speaks Bambara, a common language of Mali, very well and is able to communicate freely with most of the individuals she encounters, though she does have a translator to help her when she travels to some of the rural villages she chooses to visit. Comparing the differences between Dettwyler and Andersons’ language proficiency makes it clear that knowing the language of the culture you are going to experience is very helpful, especially in Dettwylers’ research, because it is very methodical in nature. Contrastingly, there is much to be said about learning a language through immersion, as Anderson did, because it often helps that individual to become involved in the community. For example, because Anderson is not proficient in Danish, she is not as readily accepted into Taarnbys culture as her husband is. In fact, the main reason that she is finally able to become a part of the community is because the other women assume that she is an “invalid” individual that needs help with her family. The women of Taarnby “come to the rescue” and “help” her to take care of her husband and child, thereby giving her just the opportunity she needed to begin conducting her research.

This concept of “help” and who it is given to, or expected from, also creates an interesting contrast between the experiences described in their ethnographies. Dettwyler is viewed as someone that can help the individuals that she has come to study. She is automatically assumed to have medical knowledge and money because she is white. Because of this idea that she can provide aid, she is also granted a much higher social standing. A special dance is even given in her honor which is more magnificent than she could have imagined. Anderson, however, has just the opposite experience. She is viewed as someone who needs help by the members of the Taarnby community. She has to earn her place within the culture she is studying and has quite a challenging time trying to do this at times. For example, Anderson takes a cooking class and mixes up her ingredients, only confirming to the women of Taarnby that Anderson needed “help”. It is not assumed by the community of Taarnby that she possesses anything of value and because of this, she is not given the automatic high status of Dettwyler, and she must prove herself worthy to be a member of Taarnby and its culture.

The differences between their research subjects does not exempt either from the challenges and ethical dilemmas that various situations present to them. Both women are forced to make decisions that could, and often do, greatly impact the people within the cultures they are studying. For example, Dettwyler must often make the decision of whether or not to help the children that she is studying by giving them medical care. She often chooses to aid in any way that she can, but at times she becomes frustrated because the people she is trying to help do not feel that they need