Foi Franz Boas foi o primeiro, ainda no século XIX a refletir e sugerir um método de pesquisa que valorizasse a imersão no campo, ou seja, o conhecimento de perto, no cotidiano da vida do povo estudad

Franz Boas suggested a research method that valued immersion in the field, that is, knowledge of the daily life of the people, in order to avoid data manipulation by 'desk anthropologists'. In the first three decades of the 20th century, fieldwork became a reference for research and guided the construction of a field diary with all the notes on observations, because it is only possible to investigate a custom if it is:


Defined with ethnocentric criteria
Disconnected from academic concepts
Distanced from its historical context
Related to its collective context
Related to its particular context