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The field guide revisited In the late 1950's the US National Academy of Sciences issued a series of field guides for the ethnographer heading overseas. Five typewritten leaflets on Oceania, India, Brazil, Japan, and Western and Central Africa (Keesing 1959, Beals, Hitchcock 1960, Hutchinson 1960, Beardsley 1959, Wolfe 1959), all complete with sections on the political and economic geography of the region, the relationship with indigenous groups, the adjustment to physical conditions, the presence of other scientific institutions, and in general any aspect of life outside Euro-America deemed relevant to the enterprising fieldworker.

Today they come across as a strange and somewhat amusing read, not least because of their abundant anachronisms such as the caution that Brazilians do not “honour the cocktail hour the way we do"(Hutchinson 1960.41). Indeed, at first glance there are plenty of reasons not to revive …