In the old days, when I was a peripatetic roamer on a quest, my general rule was to go where the locals go, eat where they eat, and get involved with what they find interesting. Amazingly, when I became an anthropologist, I found that exactly the same approach worked the best for meeting people and getting involved in interesting events.
I may have been logging the events of a Saint’s Festival, or poking around neighborhood gardens, but it was the same darn thing.
One of my great influences as an anthropologist, Tony Leeds, told me this was the case when I was an undergrad at Boston University. But I refused to believe it was that basic an approach. It had to be something that you dialed way up, some super perceptive esoteric approach. The anthropological literature was full of all sorts of stuff like that. But Tony just shrugged and told me about his fieldwork in the Favelas of Brazil, and yes, it was as he described, except of course you were keeping track of things.
Now I know there are limits to this methodology. You might not be able, or be allowed to, follow it. Language, safety, and local cultural or governmental restrictions may get in the way. But take a taste and see if you like it.
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Somehow, I learned right away as a meteorologist, that a way to fast-track some inside knowledge on local weather phenomena was to talk to the farmers and ranchers. When they started talking about the signs they saw and what it meant; stop and listen. There’s no amount of classroom education that can teach you that when ants build their anthills higher in the sagebrush desert of Humboldt County, Nevada, then you are in for a cold winter.
I learned similar things from Italian, Portuguese, and Polish gardeners when I was doing my Hidden Countryside project on urban gardeners – it’s local, observational, and traditional knowledge that’s stood the test of time.
Oh yes, that would have been great knowledge to discover about gardens.
When you live out there and watch the clouds you get a LOT of information. Where I live — between two mountain ranges in ranching/farming country, mostly empty, I’ve learned a lot from just being out there watching the sky. There’s a big informative drama out there sometimes. Thanks for the anthill information — I would imagine it’s true here, in Colorado’s San Luis Valley, same high desert as Nevada. This year the ants have outdone themselves.
Oh interesting! It’s also a record-breaking El Nino year, like 1997/98, so along with the anthills, it sounds like a winter to prepare for.