Encountering anthropology

My first assignment in Africa, many decades ago, turned into a three-year course in social anthropology, writes Menakhem Ben-Yami. My teachers and examiners were the local people (fishermen, government officers, merchants, fish processors, and some others), and I had to pass many, almost daily exams. I went there as a fishing technologist and master fisherman with terms of reference of introducing improved technology, training fishery apprentices, skippering a government boat, etc.