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The Innocent Anthropologist : Notes from a Mud Hut | 
 enlarge | Author: Nigel Barley
Publisher: Waveland Pr Inc
Category: Book
List Price: $16.50
Buy New: $15.63
You Save: $0.87 (5%)
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Rating:  15 reviews
Sales Rank: 108626
Media: Paperback
Pages: 190
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.5
Dimensions (in): 8.3 x 5.4 x 0.5
ISBN: 1577661567
Dewey Decimal Number: 300
EAN: 9781577661566
ASIN: 1577661567
Publication Date: September 1, 2000
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
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Product Description
When British anthropologist Nigel Barley set up home among the Dowayo people in northern Cameroon, he knew how fieldwork should be conducted. Unfortunately, nobody had told the Dowayo. His compulsive, witty account of first fieldwork offers a wonderfully inspiring introduction to the real life of a cultural anthropologist doing research in a Third World area. Both touching and hilarious, Barley s unconventional story in which he survived boredom, hostility, disaster, and illness addresses many critical issues in anthropology and in fieldwork.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 10 more reviews...
What about the women? July 31, 2002
6 out of 8 found this review helpful
While I enjoyed this book very much, and found it both humorous and enlightening, I was left with some curiosity and concern about the female tribespeople. Barley never delves into the lives of the women, nor comments on the fact that the women are treated as commodities and excluded from most ceremonies and celebrations. I couldn't help but think that a female anthropologist would have come away with an entirely different view of the Dowayo. Barley's hilarious description of Cameroonian dentistry, however, was enjoyable enough to outweigh the whiff of sexism which put a slight damper on my enjoyment of the book.
Accesible anthropology September 25, 2003
Amazonbombshell (Milwaukie, OR, USA)
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
You've got to love this book. I'm an anthro type anyway, but if I wasn't this book would still be highly entertaining and a great experience.It's about a self-deprecating British anthropologist who goes to Cameroon to do fieldwork among a little-known tribe called the Dowayo. While he's there, he encounters strange foods, a crazy old missionary, an impossible French-speaking Dowayo assistant, illness, personal injury, beer parties in the fields, paranoid Dowayo men, and a host of other things that will alternately make you wince and laugh out loud. For anthropologists, this is an amusing look at what it's REALLY like in the field, with none of the "blood and guts" left out. For the lay reader, it's a look at what anthropologists actually do, and a highly educational one at that. If you think anthropology is all about dead white men condescending to attend a "native" ceremony now and then, this book's a kick in the head. I loved it.
Hilarious June 10, 2005
Kemayou (Cameroon)
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
This humorous and often hilarious account of Mr. Barley's time in Africa and the reality he experienced is very insightful. It dispelled the many inner inhibitions visitors often have about a new culture . True life in rural Africa can be boring, but there are many fascinating aspects about it if we have an open and curious mind. The works of Janvier Tisi and Chinua Achebe are other good books to read.
What a find December 31, 1999
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
I had the good fortune to discover this book when it was first printed, and have since read it more than once. It is both informative and painfully hilarious. Mr. Barley's books are some of the few which I always retrieve, after loaning them away.
The best anthopology book ever wrote!!! December 11, 1998
2 out of 3 found this review helpful
It shows the true about anthropology. The best book since Malinowski's Journal... Even better than the nuers by Evans-Pritchard... Is what antropology needs to be, a hilarious review of field experiencies which doesn't forgets the exotic things expected by the public...
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