When I think about science, I think about test tubes, protective eyewear, experimental controls and replication, analytical instruments, and statistical analyses. I think about being an outside, objective observer to reactions occurring in a Petri dish on a sterile lab bench. The research of Rebecca Gearhart, however, does not involve protective eyewear, replication, or expensive analytical machinery. In fact, it is not even a science where a hypothesis is tested objectively; Gearhart interacts with her research subjects and tries to get involved in their cultures and lives. “Hard” science researchers pick your jaws up off the floor; “soft” science researchers, kick back and enjoy the spotlight. The science of Rebecca Gearhart is anthropology.