Paper short abstract:

The paper aims to portray the vicissitudes of vulnerable anthropologist post- fieldwork. Learnings from the fieldwork accomplish the life stories and memories, emotions and sorrows of the researcher in a holistic perspective.

Paper long abstract:

Fieldwork is an important component in the discipline of anthropology. It occupies and plays a pivotal role not only in the development of the discipline but also for the people who are engaged in the fieldwork. Majority of the anthropologists who carry their intensive fieldwork shall definitely have their emotions, sorrows, difficulties and memories from their field areas and the people or communities they study. Fieldwork also teach us to accomplish all these different situations and support us to become a trained anthropologist.

The paper draws inferences from the three different field situations and time periods among three different social, cultural and economic settings. All these three settings have certain similarities and differences in relation to the kinds of insights and emotional learnings and anthropological underpinnings. The first field situation is with reference to the Masters fieldwork during December 1997 among the Koya, a Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Group (PVTG) from the Boddugudem village of Bhadrachalayam, Khammam district of Telangana region. The second field situation is during the M.Phil. fieldwork from September 1999 to March 2000 in Kotha Indlu village of the rural hinterlands of Chittoor district of Rayalaseema region of Andhra Pradesh. The final field situation is undertaken for Ph.D. fieldwork among the Sugali Tribe, a semi-nomadic group, during the intermittent periods of 2003-2004-2005and 2006 from Anantapur district of Andhra Pradesh. During the first field situation, the responsibility and learnings filled with jovial and joyful company of teachers and classmates of the researcher is different from the second and third field settings. The second field context learnings are equally different from the third and first field situations. During this time, it’s a more responsible and more serious fieldwork and emotions are truly engaged the researcher to pursue his career. The last situation is totally different from the other situations though there is a similarity with reference to a tribal people of the rural setting. But, the emotions and difficulties with reference to the study people and the researcher are evolved as life saving and learnings to the researcher. All these situations encompass the vicissitudes of the researcher’s narratives from the study areas and different groups of people. Theses learnings have definitely made a vulnerable anthropologist to cope up with the kinds of risks in the lives of the people in general and research situation and personal narratives of the researcher in particular.