“Anthropology at attention!”

Research relies heavily on the autonomy of researchers. When it comes to choosing the field site, producing, and analyzing data, having to contend with the expectations, limits, or even censorship of a sponsor considerably reduces the chances of producing “good” social science research. Yet there are spaces and activities that cannot, from the outset, be transformed into field sites without risking exposing the research subjects to potentially life-threatening danger once the knowledge produced is made public. Sites and periods of combat operations are among such contexts. This article therefore proposes a method for “conventionalizing” field work in military contexts, so as to allow anthropologists the opportunity to produce “good” social science research on the “workings” of warfare without putting the lives of the soldiers involved in danger. More broadly, this article criticizes all leanings toward methodological exclusivism and advocates a combinatorial approach to field research.