Verrier Elwin and His Fieldwork Method

Abstract

I would first of all like to thank the Anthropological Survey of India for inviting me to deliver the Elwin Memorial Lecture at a national seminar on ‘Verrier Elwin and his Field Method’ held at North-Eastern Hill University (NEHU) in May 2018. I have chosen to speak on ‘Verrier Elwin and his Fieldwork Method’ in view of the paucity of information on the subject, as neither Elwin has written on how he conducted his fieldwork or what his methodology of fieldwork was, nor have others written much about his method of fieldwork. Indeed, many like Enthoven (1946) and Devereux (1946) have written on the richness, soundness and reliability of his data, but they are silent about how he collected his data or what his fieldwork method was like. Among the few who I know have written on Elwin’s fieldwork method are Bhabagrahi Misra ( 1970 , 1971 ), Ramachandra Guha ( 1998 , 1999 ) and Vinay Kumar Srivastava (n.d., ms). I am not aware of the writings of any other author on this subject.