Can generalized principles for such an issue be devised?  Any approach or answer would seem to depend on many many factors: age, maturity, general habitual conduct and amount of social and life experience of the researcher; cultural beliefs, attitudes, expectations and norms in the researcher’s and host society relating to  male-female roles and interaction; even factors such as social class, education and experiences outside their society, of the males (and the other females) whom the researcher encounters. Sent from my iPad

Revered Universidad Nacional Autono,

Your lady Professor has suggested good idea to you that is absolutely true in the sense that some of the people in the community will not allow the outsiders like Village officials, development practitioners and NGOs to enter into their villages.

The main objective is to lead life without external sources of knowledge and inputs to grow for the future. They want to be independent but not to be country by others.

In Anthropological survey needs the confidence building exercises with the community people before collecting the qualitative data.

It is true that these people are very primitive, follow their own language, food habits, dressing style, attitude, cultural and traditional indigenous behavior have made them to be strong enough to sustain their life without any harmful challenges.

They are thinking that these outsiders may change their minds, practice, life styles and break the indigenous system in the hills, villages, remote settings etc.

Unless proper good rapport with these indigenous people that you cannot collect the data easily.

Regards

Senapathy

Ethiopia

Personally, I have never been trained on this. I learnt from my own experience as a volunteer at first and then applied it to the field working as a professional. The experience has grown to me after observing migrants (at first I had to deal only with male population), getting to know their culture and mentality towards women and european culture. I always paid attention to the way I dressed, talked with them, greeted them and always set limits when someone confused attention to their problems with intimate approach. I ve always been not too friendly not too rigid.

At the time of my anthropological education many many years ago, there was no even a course in “fieldwork methods”, much less advice for female students! The attitude was more or less “ sink or swim”. I agree with Christina-Tampakopoulou

This is SUCH an important question, and myself and a colleague are working on a book to explore the things we wished we had been taught before and during and after fieldwork. I came of age professionally in the 90s and early 00s, and gender wasn't mentioned except in terms of my field subjects, not myself and the powerful way it shapes not only conducting research but also working with male supervisors and others in the field and beyond. I could go on and on, but the short answer is that I was taught virtually nothing about going into the field as a woman and it severely disadvantaged and traumatized me; it's also a deeply problematic reflection of the androcentric approaches to fieldwork that persist.

I am taken aback that despite the THIRTY YEAR gap between my “professional coming of age” and yours little or nothing had changed!  We did not receive much in the way of “preparation for the field”, and certainly nothing had then been written on the subject of Women in the Field, but by the time of your courses and preparation for fieldwork the topic had begun to surface. Not many female fieldworkers, of course, feel comfortable discussing awkward or dangerous experiences, but some have, and there is writing about it on a more theoretical/practical/educational level.

“Toward a fugitive anthropology”.

https://journal.culanth.org/index.php/ca/article/view/ca32.4.05

I very much look forward to your book, Professor Orchard! Sent from my iPad

Many thanks, Judith, for this excellent reference. So much work to do here!

You are most welcome, Treena. I am long out of “the field” as well as the profession, but I continue to think about anthropology, to reflect on my experiences, and to read as much as I can without access to an academic library. I am grateful for Toronto’s Public Libraries, and for jstor and many other internet resources. I have also corresponded since 2015 with a recent Ph.D. graduate whose research subject and area are close to my own, and he not only causes me to continue thinking but provides reading suggestions, such as the one I provided to you!

And I reiterate: I hope to be able to read your book on this important subject, when it is published.