6.1 Avoiding harm

There are a number of ways a fieldworker can cause harm to a community or his/her informants. The first is by means of the so called 'researcher effect' (Bowern 2008: 158). Possible consequences are unwanted governmental attention to the community, incitement of subliminal conflicts (for example, by addressing issues which give rise to long-forgotten, suppressed trauma-related memories) or simply depletion of scarce resources like water (cf. Crowley 2007: 25-27).

Also, fieldworkers may cause harm due to carelessness regarding the protection of the participants' anonymity or by unintentionally embarrassing interviewees, for instance, when asking illiterate informants for a written consent (see informed consent for more information). Furthermore, particular attention needs to be payed to the avoidance of obviously untruthful and/or hurtful recordings (cf. Crowley 2007: 26-28).

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