Abstract
Field research is a fascinating, yet unpredictable and subjective search for knowledge and understanding of any given socio-cultural reality. The researcher’s second-order construct of the perceived reality is necessarily different from the first-order realized by the participants (Schutz and Luckmann, 1973, p. 53). None the less, while aware of the high degree of subjectivity inherent in any attempt to translate an experience into word, sound and image, the researcher aims to draw his or her construct as near to that first-order reality as possible. Paradoxically, then, this subjective activity focuses on the production of ‘objective’ and ‘authentic’ documents.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
Bîrlea, O. 1966. Principiile cercetarii folclorice (The principles of folklore research). Revista de Etnografie şi Folclor, 11, 3, pp. 201–17.
Bîrlea, O. 1969. Metodă de cercetare a folclorului (The Method of Folklore Research). Bucureşti: Editura pentru literatură.
Brăiloiu, C. 1931. Arhiva de folclor a Societăţii compozitorilor romani: schită a unei metode de folclor muzical (The folklore archives of the Society of Romanian Composers: sketch of a method for musical folklore). Boabe de grâu, 2, 4, pp. 204–19. Also printed as: Esquisse d’une méthode de folklore musical: les Archives de la Société des compositeurs roumains. Revue de musicologie, 15, 40, pp. 233–67 (published in Paris by Fischbacher).
Bucşan, A. 1971. Specificul dansului popular românesc (Characteristics of Romanian Folk Dance). Bucureşti: Editura Academiei RSR.
Bucşan, A. and Balaci, E. 1966. Metodă de cercetare a dansului popular (A method for folk dance research). Revista de Etnografie şi Folclor, 11, 3, pp. 243–50.
Costea, C. 1994. Ethnocoreologie românească (Romanian ethnochoreology). Revista de Etnografie şi Folclor, 39, 1–2, pp. 39–50.
Giurchescu, A. 1987. The national festival `Song to Romania’: Manipulation of symbols in the political discourse. In Arvidsson, C. and Blomqvist, L.E. (eds), Symbols of Power: the Aesthetics of Political Legitimation in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe. Sweden: Almqvist and Wiksell International, pp. 163–71.
Giurchescu, A. 1988. Dansens dobbelte rolle: om Vlacherne–en folk med hemevé (The double role of dance: about the Vlachs–people with homesickness). Modspil, 42, pp. 12–19.
Giurchescu, A. 1991a. Methods of research: studying a dance event among the Vlachs living in Denmark. In Buckley, A., Edström, K.-O. and Nixon, P. (eds), Proceedings of the Second British–Swedish Conference on Musicology: Ethnomusicology, Cambridge, 5–10 August, 1989 (Skrifter frân Musikvetenskapliga institutionen, 26). Göteborgs, Sweden: Department of Musicology, Göteborgs Universitet, pp. 341–56.
Giurchescu, A. 1991b. When ghosts are run over: tradition, technique and modern field research. Unpublished paper delivered at the VIII European Seminar in Ethnomusicology, Geneva, 23–28 September.
Giurchescu, A. 1994. The dance symbol as a means of communication. Acta Ethnographica Hungarica, 39, 1–2, pp. 95–105. Special Issue: Essays on folk music and folk dance of central and eastern Europe; published in Budapest by Akadémia Kiadó.
Giurchescu, A. and Bloland, S. 1995. Romanian Traditional Dance: a Contextual and Structural Approach. Mill Valley, California: Wild Flower Press.
Giurchescu, A. and Torp, L. 1991. Theory and methods in dance research: a European approach to the holistic study of dance. Yearbook for Traditional Music, XXIII, pp. 1–10.
Gusti, D. 1940. Monografia sociologicǎ: metodǎ de lucru (Sociological monograph: work methodology); Problema sociologiei: sistem si metodǎ (The problem of sociology: system and method). Academia Românǎ, Memoriile seçtiunü istorice, III, XXII, 21, 22, 23, pp. 55–83.
Kaeppler, A.L. 1991. American approaches to the study of dance. Yearbook for Traditional Music, XXIII, pp. 11–21.
Lange, R. 1984. Guidelines for field work on traditional dance methods and checklist. Dance Studies, 8, pp. 7–47 (and plates 1–15).
Martin, G. 1985. Peasant dance traditions and national dance types in east-central Europe between the 16th-19th centuries. Ethnologia Europaea, XV, pp. 117–28.
Pop, M. 1967. Indreptar pentru culegera folclorului (Guide for collecting folklore). Bucuresti: Casa Centrală a Creaţiei Populare.
Schutz, A. and Luckmann, T. 1973. The Structures of the Life World. Evanston, Illinois Northwestern University Press.
Shafir, M. 1985. Rumania, Politics, Economics and Society: Political Stagnation and Simulated Change. London: Frances Pinter.
Stone, R. and Stone, V. 1981. Event, feedback, and analysis: research media in the study of music events. Ethnomusicology, 25, pp. 215–25.
Torp, L. (ed.). 1989. The Dance Event: a Complex Cultural Phenomenon. Proceedings from the 15th Symposium of the ICTM Study Group on Ethnochoreology, Copenhagen, 1988. Copenhagen: International Council for Traditional Music Study Group on Ethnochoreology.
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Copyright information
© 1999 Palgrave Macmillan, a division of Macmillan Publishers Limited
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Giurchescu, A. (1999). Past and Present in Field Research: a Critical History of Personal Experience. In: Buckland, T.J. (eds) Dance in the Field. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230375291_4
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230375291_4
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London
Print ISBN: 978-1-349-40427-8
Online ISBN: 978-0-230-37529-1
eBook Packages: Palgrave Social & Cultural Studies CollectionSocial Sciences (R0)