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Field of Dreams; Fields of Reality
from 1987 through 2004 and Chiapas Programs from 1998 through
the present, the learning experience has thus far eclipsed the risks and
the problems. As my daughter Rachel Simonelli, an “anthro brat” who
later became an anthropology minor, completing not just the South-
west Program but also three months in Chiapas, points out:
Though anthropology classes provide the basics and background
of what students should be looking at when learning about other
people’s lives, the real world isn’t structured by a course outline. A
wide variety of experiential learning situations provide the oppor-
tunity to learn how things actually work. A good undergraduate
curriculum equips students with an anthropological lens and the
ability to make comparisons, then provides the space to be active
in the communities the classes teach about. And, during field-based
experiences, seeing other people make a difference can stimulate
the desire to make a socially active contribution through your own
education and to teach others because you were provided the free-
dom to learn through experience. These field programs have raised
questions that I still try to answer: Can objectivity and activism
coexist? Should anthropology as a field of study be an end in itself,
or is our true contribution to take what we learn into other areas
like law, social service, or education?
To my knowledge, no one has polled the communities we work in
about their perception of the experiential exchange. The Chiapas Proj-
ect has evolved since 1999 , with Kate and me following our own sep-
arate goals and taking students to communities related to these inter-
ests. The extent of our involvement with the communities has also
evolved, from tentative service projects, as requested by the commu-
nities, to actual faculty and student research, as designed in collabora-
tion with our hosts, and approved after lengthy community meetings.
But the overall goals of the project still reflect the original guidelines,
as summarized by Kate:
1. To clarify values by examining the choices we make individually,
locally, and globally
2. To help students grow through action on projects that are designed
