Chris wrote
>
> Many people find any sort of scrutiny threatening because it may 
> unbalance a stable existence and bring changes that some would find 
> unwelcome. That is why in many realms performance reviews, 
> productivity benchmarks, old fashioned time and motion investigations 
> etc. are very worrying for the subjects.
>
> If you put the two together it's a volatile mix that can very easily 
> explode. That is why I go to great lengths to protect myself when 
> conducting behavioural analyses in the community with my population of 
> service users.
>
I've found this to be the case and it seems to be a common response for 
people who need to really depend on their religious belief to function.  
Typically most people are really happy present a critique to you and you 
can come to terms with issues through debate. I actually find this 
really fun and enlightening and generally leave to both of us feeling 
better off.  I do find though, as an academic, the people who are 
threatened tend to project a lot of their dissatisfaction with all kinds 
of things on to you and so you also become an object to them of all 
sorts of thing of which you have no control over and receive this 
strange out of context vitriol and aggression.

To be honest however this kind of vitriolic aggression and game playing 
projection is far from the norm' in my expereince.  I've only really had 
it happen maybe a couple of times that didn't lead to an understanding 
later on even if of the agree to disagree kind.  You get a funny feeling 
with it though like you are only hearing half the debate and aware of 
half of what is going on since so much really has absolutely nothing to 
do with you as a human being or your research.  I think that is actually 
at the base of it as if its actually on how you've conducted your work 
or interviews etc you can get an understanding, resolution and 
compromise through discussion once you are past the projection and 
emotion. There are some exceptions and I have one or two on my book that 
rather leave me feeling bewildered with that odd one sided conversation. 

I think though at base as researchers its worth dealing with the fact 
that the whole "scrutinizing gaze" actually works both ways and that is 
part of the experience of research.  Negotiating power has its own 
dynamic in the research process as has been very thoroughly discussed in 
anthro' literature.

Cheers
David