ABSTRACT
The two monographs which constitute the core of this chapter are landmarks of ethnographic field method, since both authors found it possible to integrate a description of their field methods with the factual material obtained with these methods. Few Classic ethnographic monographs did this—the majority simply presented the material without detailed comments on how it was gathered, or how the field situation may have influenced the content. I consider that these two pieces which, despite differences, resemble one another in topic and approach, are among the finest examples of insightful field investigation produced in the Classic era. The two monographs are also fragments— though complete in themselves—of much larger and more extensive ethnographic investigations of the peoples concerned. This gives assurance of validity since they are part of a known cultural context. In such full contexts, where the relationship of parts of a social system are more easily determined, functional analysis can attain maximum plausibility.
