xvof northern British Columbia; Don Antonio and Don Patricio among
the Mazatec in Mexico; Vera—a young Maya weaver, and Alyssa in
California; Don Tun Kaían and Manuel among the Maya in Guate-
mala; Ustar Zahir Hussain and Zakirji in New Delhi and California;
Roberto Mendez Mendez, the Jaguar Twins, and Bishop Luis in the
region of San Andrés, Chiapas, Mexico. The circumstances in which
these individuals encountered us over extended periods of time in their
homelands or in their places of adoption vary. In all cases, these men-
tors prompted us, as professionals and fellow human beings, to strive
with greater determination to “reach the highest goal of our work,”
which consists in “fashioning representations of other cultures [and
of other people] that do not erase their immediacy and presence” (Fa-
bian 2000 , 120 ).
We are most grateful to Johannes Fabian for the preface to this
book. We thank the two anonymous reviewers whose judicious com-
ments and supportive recommendations enabled us to improve upon
our work. We are grateful to Mélanie Simoneau from the Faculty of
Human Sciences at Saint Paul University (Ottawa) for the prepara-
tion of the electronic version of the manuscript and to Alexis Goulet-
Hanssens for checking all references included in the chapters against
the entries in the general bibliography at the end of the book. Thanks
also to the staff at the University of Nebraska Press for their enthusi-
astic support for this project. Finally, but not the least, this book has
benefited greatly from the skills of copy editor Jackie Doyle. As is the
case with all publications, in this book there are undoubtedly points
of views and facts that we, or others, will later want to modify or cor-
rect. The shortcomings, whatever they may be, although unintended,
remain our responsibility.
Acknowledgments