Examining the problems faced by social anthropologists in the study of European communities, this book provides a critical examination of the method of participant observation in a period of post-structuralist theories which question the possibility of objectivity in social research. Particular attention is paid to the problem of integrating the evidence of historical documents and oral histories with the data of contemporary observation. Other problems discussed include how the anthropologist should approach the study of large scale communities and relate them to wider national societies and how the sex, age, class and temperament of the anthropologist may limit, or distort, what in some degree must always be a personal viewpoint.