Reflections on Fieldwork in Morocco

Rabinow’s conclusion begins with a simple statement: “Culture is interpretation” (150). This phrase sums up the multitude of points he makes throughout the book. Every aspect of every culture is a product of the humans within the culture and is subject to inaccuracies and subjectiveness. The role of an anthropologist is to find informants from within a certain cultural group and gather information with which to interpret the culture as a whole. The role of the informant is perhaps more complex. They must interpret both their own culture and the culture of the anthropologist and convey information accurately. In addition, they have no standard reason to take part in anthropological field work and must consider the implications of working with the anthropologist on their reputations within their own community.

Although Rabinow is critical of the way fieldwork is carried out, he is not pessimistic. He believes that as long as anthropology is treated as a humanity, not a science, the field will continue to produce meaningful work about cultural practices around the world. For this to happen, he writes, anthropologists must change the way they approach fieldwork. Rather than considering field data in a vacuum, assuming that all informants occupy a uniform space and treating the anthropologist as an objective observer, researchers must carefully consider the culture in which they are working and work both within and against its norms to find data that is actually useful.