The present paper argued for the necessity of a thorough consideration of certain methodological issues as a precondition for sound field research in foreign cultures. A detailed case study illustrated how a failure in dealing with these issues can lead to difficulties in both the observation and interpretation of events. Observational reports in foreign studies are to be viewed as accounts of the interaction between members of different cultures-as it is perceived and related by the foreign investigator. Accordingly, a study of how members of different cultures interact is propaedeutic to these research undertakings. Several aspects of this interactional process were discussed: (a) The difficulties in communication, (b) the perceptions of the investigator as a function of ethnocentric bias and social distance from the indigenous people; and (c) the disturbance of the very phenomenon under investigation resulting from the observation itself.