An example of metaphor used to describe research:
"[Beatrice] Blackwood had worked in the field – she toured North America in the mid-1920s collecting anthropological data – but it was not the 'right' kind of anthropological data. While there, she had worked primarily as a physical anthropologist, visiting institutions such as schools, Native American reservations and hospitals, where she measured people's bodies to chart their racial differences.* She covered thousands of miles and visited places for only a week or two at a time.
To her peers in Sydney this was outmoded, even irrelevant, smash-and-grab style research, more concerned with comparative statistics than with a nuanced appreciation of people's everyday habits and beliefs."
Frances Larson (2021) Undreamed Shores. The hidden heroines of British anthropology. London: Granta
* At this time it was widely believed, even by many scientists, that human beings could be divided into a number of distinct races. This idea has since been shown untenable in the light of the range of evidence available today (e.g., genetic evidence) though it remains a common misconception. [Read 'Who has the right to call someone 'White'?']
