Body Language and Culture in Fieldnotes

Suntein and Chiseri-Strater discusses body language and culture. To them, body language can not be separated from the culture. The two are interwoven. They categorises what a fieldworker needs to do when it comes to recording nonverbal languages, and what he should do when verbal languages are used. Non verbal to me means strictly the body languages. And so every fieldworker should be able to notice and record when the unfamiliar words and terms that he hears from the insiders are used. Or when the insider makes any move with his body like the example they gave about a boy in class who used three chairs for space. However, these categories are; (a) As a tool of the mind, verbal languages brings nonverbal thoughts to the surface of consciousness, (b) for some fieldworkers, language becomes the topic of their research, illustrating how a culture shares knowledge through words, (c) because researchers write, language provides them with the means to communicate knowledge about others (309). Language can complicates research for a researcher and at the same time helps the researcher if the insiders are ready to cooperate with the researcher. Take for example, if a researcher is researching on unfamiliar culture and language, and he happens not to have a translator, or in a situation where there is one but he is not ready to act completely as an insider that he is, the researcher is bound to have problems. And that is why Sunstein and Chiseri-Srater state that "This tool we call language is equipped with a kind of filter. It filters out cultural specifics, keeping outsiders away from understanding" (307). And so an outsider will need to do extra job to come up with a great research.

So the advise that they give to fieldworkers is to "act as a cultural translator, recording and questioning the meanings of the key words, phrases, and ideas that might serve as clues to step into your informants culture" (311). This makes a lot of sense to me. I can call this multitasking method. A good example was when I went to interview Ivory Moore, there were some of the things he said to me that I did not understand, I either asked him to repeat, or I asked him to explain. But the good aspect of it all was that, his wife was always explaining and giving me more details especially on those words I could not understand. They are the insider and I am an outsider.