| Fieldwork involves physical and
psychological risks on the debit side but physical and psychological
liberty from the constraints of our own society and ordered environment
on the credit side. Disillusioned with our lot and full of conflicts
about what we want for our children, it is easy to cherish an image of
them as budding noble savages, at one with a meaningful natural world.
The positive features of this life, like most valuable experience, are
embraced by facing dangers and suffering deprivations. We may accept
this in principle, but the more we concentrate on the romantic image of
childhood in a non-Western society, the less realistic we become about
the difficulties. In our own way, we are apt to show as much lack of
imagination as those people who annoy us with their conviction that
either homesickness or snakes will finish off our children as they step
off the airplane.
Christine Hugh-Jones (1987), on bringing her children on fieldwork in the Amazon. |