More and more, anthropologists are recruited as consultants by government departments, companies or as observers of development processes in their field areas generally. Although these roles can be very gratifying, they can create ambiguous situations for the anthropologists who find that new pressures and responsibilities are placed upon them for which their training did not prepare them. This volume explores some of the problems, opportunities, issues, debates, and dilemmas surrounding these roles. The geographic focus of the studies is Papua New Guinea, but the topic and its importance apply widely through the world, for example, Africa, South America, Australia, and the Pacific in general, as well as in relation to indigenous groups in Canada and elsewhere. All the authors have first-hand experience and they address these new pressures and responsibilities of anthropological research. The book's chapters are written in a way that combines scholarship with a style accessible to general readers.

Pamela Stewart is Research Associate at the University of Pittsburgh. She works on human identities and life histories, farming practices and national identity, patient/physician communication, religious change and sorcery, forms of violence and its impact. Her areas of interest include the U.S., Europe, and Papua New Guinea.

Preface Andrew Strathern and Pamela J. Stewart

Introduction: Anthropology and ConsultancyEthnographic Dilemmas and OpportunitesAndrew Strathern and Pamela J. Stewart

Chapter 1. On Knowing the Baining and Other Minor Ethnic Groups of East New BritainMarta A. Rohatynskyj

Chapter 2. From Athropologist to Government Officer and Back AgainRichard Scaglion

Chapter 3. Environmental Non-governmental Organizations and the Nature of Ethnographic InquiryPaige West

Chapter 4. The Politics of Accountability: An Institutional Analysis of the Conservation Movement in Papua New GuineaJohn Richard Wagner

Chapter 5. Where Anthropologists Fear to Tread: Notes and Queries on Anthropology and Consultancy, Inspired by a Fieldwork ExperienceLorenzo Brutti

Chapter 6. Taking Care of Culture: Consultancy, Anthropology, and Gender IssuesMartha Macintyre

Notes on Contributors Index