To be prepared:
Understanding Risk

summary here

Here, the risks we refer to are those faced by the communities in which we are working as anthropologists.

It is vital that we, as anthropologists, recognize that the work we produce will have an effect on those communities that we write about. It is not only in the publication of our work that we may have an effect our interlocutors, but in the way we choose to research in the communities we embed ourselves in. Depending on the questions you are trying to answer, people may be putting themselves at risk in the simple act of speaking to you. Asking the wrong question to the wrong person at the wrong time can have serious consequences for everyone involved,

Being aware of the nature of your inquiry-- whether you're looking to study power from the top down or the from the bottom, those who are vulnerable or those who are in power-- is absolutely critical in conducting safe, effective, and respectful fieldwork.