Stephan, Fieldwork

The method of anthropological research is participant observation. The term participant observation means to live for a long time with people of very different lifestyle and culture. It means to become socialised into a new community with its own norms and values without distancing oneself. It means also not only to document what is going on in everyday life but to reflect on the process of personal integration of the researcher into the community. The anthropologist becomes a crossroad of different identities, religions, languages, knowledge systems.