The effect of anthropological research on the researcher: a self-reflexive account of fieldwork conducted for Rape Crisis (Cape Town)

Rossouw, Marchelle

The effect of anthropological research on the researcher: a self-reflexive account of fieldwork conducted for Rape Crisis (Cape Town)

Master Thesis

1996

Abstract

This dissertation is part of an applied anthropology project based on contract research done for the Rape Crisis organisation in Cape Town on the treatment received by rape survivors from police and district surgeons. It discusses the process of doing the applied research, as well as the problems experienced while in the field. Of particular importance is the process whereby the researcher's sense of self was transformed, and the dialectical nature of the relationship between this transformation and the way in which the study was conducted. The dissertation is structured around this issue, which is of major importance to anthropological research. Self-reflexivity is important because the way in which we interpret what we see is shaped by who we are. Being self reflexive is recognising that we are instruments of observation (Bell, 1993:8). By making our biases explicit, we present as full a picture as possible of· those we study and the study process itself. This dissertation strives to do this and thereby also to provide information on the process of the fieldwork which resulted in a report for Rape Crisis (Cape Town).

Keywords

Social Anthropology

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