Interview of Rosemary Firth by Alan Macfarlane 8^th July 1983

0:05:00 1935 took M.A. in economics at Edinburgh and became an anthropologist after meeting husband; at Edinburgh ‘Political Economy’ had a good deal of sociology and anthropology of law in it; intended to go into social work but met Raymond who wanted her to work with him; after engagement met his colleagues Audrey Richards and Lucy Mair at a lunch party and realized she had to learn the “culture” of anthropology; as a wife going to the field, very difficult not to get involved; has no doctorate in anthropology but joined the Malinowski seminar and read extensively, learnt by apprenticeship to Raymond in the field

0:03:00 Originally they meant to go to China but couldn’t due to the war so went to Malaya; fieldwork base in Kelantan delightful; Raymond encouraged her to sit on the beach to get to know Malay women and then begin fieldwork investigation; difficulty of remaining objective and fear of absorbing the characteristics of a Malay Muslim woman

0:09:02 Sensible to exploit the fact of being a woman in the fieldwork situation and study women; as an anthropologist also have the advantage of being able to do things that other women can’t and observe the male world;

0:11:45 Did work on the domestic economy; modelled self on Audrey Richards; didn’t do work on childrearing which she regrets; working with Raymond to test answers given by informants

0:15:15 Strong relationships with the women studied; a virtuous anthropologist keeps in touch with his people when he comes back from the field; are humans all the same under the skin?

0:19:15 Of anthropologists, influenced by Lucy Mair,  greatly by Malinowski

0:20:55 Memories of Malinowski; Socratic method of teaching