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Personal notes of B. Sandburg:
The rules of field research:
Field research is a process of many years. (I've lived with this guy now for 3 years and he still doesn't have a clue!) - Preparations: (I think I've read every damn thing about sentinels ever written on this planet. Didn't prepare me for Jim and his moods or his gorgeous butt. Neither for flying bullets and the psychos, side effect of the subject's job.) - Financing: (Moved in with the subject, saved a lot of rent. No extra costs to blend in with the natives. No traveling. Occasional bribing of the subject with Wonderburger.) - License: (Jim begged Simon. Simon bent rules. Permanent ride along. They won't ever get rid of me if I have any say.) - Language acquisition: (Crash course in macho bull shitting, swearing, native symbolism, cop codes and one syllable words.)
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Admission into the society
- Accustom into the daily problems: (House rules. Guns. Mad serial killers who want to cut out your heart and eat it. No sex in the loft. Total loss of privacy, worse than for M. Moffat in South India. Bombs. CIA. Raising health bills. Odd working hours. Stakeouts in a freezing truck. Corpses and autopsies....)
- Development of relationships: (Try to get the trust of your subject. Try to avoid lying. Try to avoid hard ones around your subject. Go out drinking with the guys.)
- Explain your scientific interest: (Difficult. Nobody understands me or my goals. Not even Jim. And to the rest I have to lie anyway.)
- Assigned role and position in society: (I went from the clown, the usual part for an anthropologist in fieldwork, to trailing along sidekick, to full partner.)
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Daily routine
- Informants: (Difficult since the research is a secret. My main and only informant, Jim, is emotionally too much involved and often resisting.)
- Observing: (Observing means a lot of risk for me. The subject has to be watched during work. I've increased my life insurance.)
- Partaking: (I won't carry a gun, but I arrest guys, somehow. I would rather take part in the mating research, but I don't think I can interest Jim to take me as his bed partner too.)
- Conclusions: (I'm considering changing my topic for my thesis. Closed societies maybe?)
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