I'm packing today but just for a short weekend trip down south where my University is located. Since I'll be missing a couple of marital celebrations this coming year I'm making an effort to attend any preliminary partying, e.g. bachelorette party. My partner is coming down with me since he can't stand to be without me in these final days...yeah right, in reality, his drinking buddies are all down south and he's coming down with me so that he can have a little catch-up (bottle-up) time with them. He'll do this while I dance around to bad music with a bunch of girls who have plastic penis necklaces dangling around their necks and while one of the bride's maids cuts the penis-shaped cake in the background for all to share. Can I say penis one more time? Penis. Okay, it's out of my system, enough anatomy for right now.
Responding to my sister's email earlier this morning, I wrote: "I'm going to pack my computer and some underwear and then I'll just be off." And as I packed for this coming weekend, I realised that packing for the 'real' trip will be just like that...that I just pack a couple of bits and bobs and if I forget anything, well I can probably just buy it over there anyway. It's not rocket science, but I was imaging "the great pack" to be something monumental that I would have to build and work up to. It brings me to reflect on some of the methods of anthropology.
Historically, ethnographic research was conducted by lone (usually male) researchers who went off into the great unknown (usually under colonial auspices) to learn all they could about the local "savages" (yes, scare quotes are necessary here) only to one day return to the Empire and report on all things unholy they found while in the field. Since then, it has become somewhat of a rite of passage.
While most anthropologists of today still feel that an extended period of time in the field is a necessary step for up-and-coming anthropologists and the process overall to be necessary for 'proper' anthropological research to occur, the locales (in most instances) have somewhat changed. Due to circumstances too numerous to mention and a heavy dose of self-reflection, Anthropologists have now begun to study 'themselves', e.g. a Canadian researcher with Dutch heritage conducting research in the Netherlands. With regard to my suitcase (um...where is she going with this?), I'm betting that the 'wildes of Rotterdam' will not be anything so frightening that a trip to the local H&M couldn't cure...or Zara, Mango, etc,. And while I don't want to suggest that stepping out in Rotterdam will be exactly like stepping out in London, Ontario (as stepping out into a bike lane anywhere in the Netherlands will tell you otherwise), I believe my rite of passage will be in some ways easier (than other fields that I could have selected), and yet still different but then in certain ways, almost alike. God, I'm playing with some anthropological fire here, but anyway, point being, my suitcase won't be hard to pack. Okay?
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