Letter Writing and Learning in Anthropology

Writing has special importance in anthropology. Writing fieldnotes is a central methodol-ogy for documenting and analyzing culture, and written personal reflections upon this process are viewed as providing insight into how knowledge is produced by a “situated” researcher. That said, there is little discussion in the discipline about the use of writing as pedagogy or a tool for popularizing the discipline. This article considers how old fashion letter writing to anthropologists can strengthen students ’ learning to write and analyze culture. It also indicates how writing letters popularizes the discipline. Letter writing is communication, method, tradition, and now pedagogy in anthropology. This progression of uses has relevance to teaching and learning in other disciplines