Page 50 - Creating Spiritual and Psychological Resilience

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An Anthropologist Among
Disaster Caregivers

Joshua M. Moses

Entering the Field*

I entered anthropological fieldwork not in the usual manner associated
with the discipline of anthropology—boarding a plane for the Fiji Islands
or another exotic destination and living in a hut among indigenous peo-
ple—but instead by stepping out of the subway on a beautiful autumn
morning in New York City. Rather than me going into the field, the field
sprung up around me.
In September of 2001, I embarked on my graduate school career at the
Graduate Center of City University of New York. About a week after the
semester began, exiting the F subway stop on Houston Street and 2nd
Avenue, and still sleepy, a minivan with a whirling siren raced downtown
at top speed, nearly hitting me. I stopped at the corner, cursing the driver.
It was then I noticed dark smoke rising from downtown. Several people
were intently gazing upward. With mild interest, I asked, “What building
is that?” “The Trade Center,” the man next to me said. While I watched,
minutes, maybe seconds later, with a flash and ground-shaking boom the
second tower burst into flame. I stood on that corner for what seemed like
an hour but might have been 15 minutes, reluctant to leave the small group

* This article is adapted from the author’s dissertation (Moses, 2009). The National Institute of
Mental Health (NIMH) National Research Service Award (NRSA), Award Number F31, supported
the research. The author would like to thank Dr. Kim Hopper and the Nathan Kline Institute for
Psychiatric Research for the conception and early financial and ongoing intellectual support of
this project.

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