Paper short abstract:

Accidents are significant sites of discovery and may redirect the gaze of inquiry at any time during the research process. Cultural faux pas spoken or acted in the company of informants as well as life events and memories direct the path of research from field process to analysis.

Paper long abstract:

Drawing from research on intercultural experience in three different 'fields' (incomer identity in the Inner Hebrides of Scotland, intermarriage in East Nepal, and the practice of Japanese martial arts in Europe and the US), this paper suggests that accidents are more often than not sites of meaningful discovery in anthropological theory and practice. Skills including openness and flexibility allow these moments to reveal themselves as significant and redirect the gaze of inquiry at any time during the research process. Accidents which happen on a micro-scale (cultural faux pas, for instance, spoken or acted in the company of informants) as well as those which happen on a larger scale (life events and memories which choose fields and shape foci for the researcher), direct the path of research from field process to analysis. This is more than a quest for honest reflexivity, but it is an attempt to challenge scientistic and linear models of research design and process with ones which more closely match the realities of our trade and revel in the serendipitous and often surprising nature of human interaction.