Imagine having to learn from an entire new culture and be in someone else's shoes? Many Ethnographers are rejected from the communities hundreds of times. It takes time and dedication in order to construct a bridge of trust between these two different cultures. Malinowski and Abu-Lughod face many obstacles in their fieldwork as they try to fit in a new culture. These two anthropologists use distinctive methods in order to approach their new surrounding sufficiently. As they discuss the various attempts to gain trust from their research site, these anthropologist obtain a different point of view on how to grasp a new culture. As they present themselves toward an unfamiliar environment, these two anthropologist achieve similarly the same data, but approach their sites differently. .
Given Malinowski's background knowledge in science, it helps him grab an understanding of how the natives go about in their daily lives. He walked on new territory, oversaw new cultures, observed religious rituals, and saw new faces. He believed that native people did not care to help, "had no help for the white man is temporarily absent or else unable or unwilling to waste any of his time on you" (Malinowski 1984: 4). Meaning, he was considered an outsider. It took him various attempts to successfully gain the trust from the natives. He observed them from a distance trying to gather the most information, "I was quite unable to enter into any more detailed or explicit conversation with them at first" (Malinowski 1984:5). Malinowski presented himself as an outsider and did not know how to interact with the natives at first. He distributed surveys and took a village census. It took him a while to understand that the most sufficient way an anthropologist could grasp the gist of a new culture is by being proactive. He started camping right in their villages and took personal interest in the gossip of the small village developments.
