*facepalm*

[cimorene]

a new course in folkloristics today.

Professor Surprise¹: what do you think about when you hear the word "fieldwork"? anyone?
me: jane goodall.
[silence]
Professor Surprise: who?
me: you know, that woman - with the chimpanzees?
Professor Surprise: oh - i don't know, but i'll just write "chimpanzees", okay?

[Poll #902689]


1. Professor Surprise is wee and perky and seems nice. her name results from her very short and wide-set, rather high eyebrows. she looks perpetually surprised, or at least very, very intent.

Comments

[bubosquared.livejournal.com]

Jane Goodall observed Gorillas, I thought?

[cimness.livejournal.com]

nope! she's known for discovering that chimpanzees make and use tools (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jane_Goodall).

[bubosquared.livejournal.com]

Huh. I must be thinking of someone else, then. Who;s the Gorillas in the Mist lady again?

[cimness.livejournal.com]

apparently it's dian fossey (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gorillas_in_the_Mist:_The_Story_of_Dian_Fossey), although i hadn't actually heard of her before.

[bubosquared.livejournal.com]

That's the one!

... How the hell did I get those two confused? o_O

[kyuuketsukirui.livejournal.com]

I voted yes, but I thought it was gorillas. I did know that Jane Goodall = monkeys, though. So.

[cimness.livejournal.com]

better than Professor Surprise did!

[revulo.livejournal.com]

...what? You're kidding.

[cimness.livejournal.com]

sadly not.

[copracat]

So, what was her ultimate point about fieldwork?

[cimness.livejournal.com]

it's a methodology course; that was the beginning of her introduction. later we're going to do various practise exercises.

[ida-pea.livejournal.com]

Jane Goodall came to speak at my highschool once. She was really cool!

[cimness.livejournal.com]

*envy* the coolest we ever got was mc hammer...

[miriam-heddy.livejournal.com]

I'm probably an outlier or something, but when I was a kid, I wanted to be Jane Goodall.

I find it hard to believe that anyone talking about fieldwork wouldn't know her, though I suppose the fact that she studied non-human animals might keep her off the radar of someone in folklore. I guess I might have ended up going with someone more obvious, like Claude Levi-Strauss (whom I hope your teacher knows *g*).

[cimness.livejournal.com]

*grin* but she asked for the first thing that came to mind! which, for me, is honestly jane goodall (and i've certainly known about her since childhood, although i didn't actually want to be her). i get this image of anthropologists in safari gear in dusty tall boots, with little canvas tents, in the jungle, with chimps.

of course 'fieldwork' for folklore is more like "go down to the mall and ask four little old men to tell war stories".

[aynatonal.livejournal.com]

of course 'fieldwork' for folklore is more like "go down to the mall and ask four little old men to tell war stories".

If you're lucky! A friend of mine ended up in this little rural village in Cambodia, the only English speaker, supposedly recording oral histories but in reality, helping them bring in the marijuana crop. Then she got dengue fever! And had to be airlifted out! I think by the end, she would have liked to ask some little old men about their war experiences.

[cimness.livejournal.com]

my university's department, at least, seems to be strongly invested in the folklore of this region. that might be because it's tiny or from lack of funding or something.

[mecurtin.livejournal.com]

And you think I *didn't*?!? (it turned out me + tropics = nothing good, alas)

No-one who studies anything related to anthropology yet doesn't recognize Jane Goodall deserves to keep their degree. harumph.

How old is Dr.Surprise, cim?

[cimness.livejournal.com]

she's a doctoral student, not a full doctor, and i'd say she's in her upper twenties probably. but i can't conceive how she could have even taken a class about the methodologies she is supposed to be teaching us without having read about goodall, let alone teach one.

[annlarimer.livejournal.com]

Or, y'know, ever watched television. Or been alive.

Though, in fairness, for some reason, the JG movies we saw in elementary school called her "Miss Jane." Miss Jane and the Chimpanzees of Gombe, etc.

[anglepoiselamp.livejournal.com]

I had a big human-rights-for-apes thing going on as a teenager. Later I dropped it because thinking about it made me way, way too anxious (...although, what doesn't).

[cimness.livejournal.com]

yeah, but hopeless causes are a bit worse. at least, not utterly hopeless - i like to think there's hope for some point in the future - but not the terribly near future, i guess.