"WE DIDN'T THINK YOU WAS COMIN' BACK": ART, FIELDWORK, AND HISTORY IN THE EAST KIMBERLEY, WESTERN AUSTRALIA

Authors

Eric Kjellgren, The Metropolitan Museum of ArtFollow

Abstract

Heracleitus observed that it is impossible to step into the same river, yet the river remains over time. This paradox summarizes the relationship between anthropological fieldwork and ethnography. Entering the field is to experience a culture at one point in time. To write ethnography is to create a general analysis of that culture. Just as one can better understand a river's nature by observing it over time, one gains a more nuanced understanding of a culture through repeated episodes of fieldwork. Using examples from my research in the East Kimberley, Western Australia, I explore how the ongoing history of cultural phenomena affects the information collected about them. I argue that when one is in the field is as important as what one is investigating and that, to gain a fuller understanding of any cultural phenomenon, long-term fieldwork is essential.

Recommended Citation

Kjellgren, Eric (2004) ""WE DIDN'T THINK YOU WAS COMIN' BACK": ART, FIELDWORK, AND HISTORY IN THE EAST KIMBERLEY, WESTERN AUSTRALIA," Pacific Studies Journal: Vol. 27: No. 2, Article 7.
Available at: https://digitalcollections.byuh.edu/pacific-studies-journal/vol27/iss2/7