Eventualizing the field: Reflections on Erma Shibi in Puxi, Sichuan fieldwork in the musical ethnography films
将田野“事件化”——四川蒲溪尔马释比音乐影像志田野反思

摘要

科学领域实证性的研究会经过猜想、演算和实验的过程，并不断重复乃至得到一个普适性的宏观真理，这是我所理解定量研究。所以一切对象在未经过实证之前都只能是一种猜测，而不能成为事实。反观音乐人类学，它出自经验科学，以文化研究为本质的特性使得质性研究在其中占据了重要的地位，并且这种研究方式赋予了其人文学科独有的气质。虽然实证研究的方法必然是需要的，但人的行为似乎并不是通过实证研究能够得出答案的。人类学家进行田野工作的目的也绝不是为了得到一堆冰冷的数据和表格，并将其分析之后得出一个“结论”。而是通过这种研究，去追求一种“理解”的可能性。这便使得田野工作成为游移于定量与质性、理性与非理性中的“介乎其间”。

Abstract

Empirical research in the scientific domain follows a process of conjecture, calculation, and experimentation, which is iterated continuously until a universally applicable macroscopic truth is derived—this constitutes my understanding of quantitative research. Accordingly, any proposition remains merely a hypothesis rather than an established fact prior to empirical verification. By contrast, as a discipline rooted in experiential science and essentially oriented toward cultural studies, musical anthropology accords a prominent position to qualitative research, which endows the field with the distinctive characteristics inherent to the humanities. While empirical methodologies are undeniably indispensable, human behavior appears resistant to definitive elucidation through quantitative empirical approaches alone. The objective of anthropological fieldwork is by no means to acquire a set of impersonal data and tabulations, nor to formulate a conclusive assertion via analytical processing. Instead, it seeks to pursue the possibility of interpretive understanding through such investigative practices. Consequently, fieldwork in musical anthropology emerges as an intermediary domain situated between quantitative and qualitative paradigms, as well as between rationality and non-rationality.