Goulet.pdf

Bruce Granville Miller

those who used particular resource-procurement sites. One night, dur-
ing the most intense part of this research, I was visited in a dream by
three visitors, ancestors, who came to the foot of my bed and told me
their names and names that I needed to find. This was not scary, nor
did it seem wholly otherworldly, although the experience was outside
the ordinary for me. Information from ancestors and dreams is an ap-
propriate source of knowledge in the community, for some at least.
While I did not widely broadcast the news of this experience, it was
readily understandable locally. It struck me that this experience sug-
gested that it was good that I was doing the work; I felt that way about
it. No one disputed this or proffered this opinion (I did not share this
thought). But people more matter-of-factly suggested that these expe-
riences do happen (are part of daily experience and, hence, experience-
near) and that it showed that the ancestors maintain active interest in
the community of today. The experience, in this interpretation, was
about the community and the ancestors, not me. The benefits to me,
however, were that I was encouraged in my work, and I could relate
an experience that conformed to local understandings and that sug-
gested respect. Further, what I was told was a source of raw data, al-
beit data that needed confirmation from another source to be used in
a legal setting. The reactions of community members were a source of
unexpected insight into culture. I could see more clearly what knowl-
edge meant and how it might be obtained. I might add that this ex-
perience conveyed something of the beauty of this society and its sys-
tems of knowledge and meaning. This was an “ecstatic” experience,
and the local connotation was that good comes along with it. I expe-
rienced it that way. I am not sure it means that I have learned enough,
that I am progressing in knowledge, and that I truly share this episte-
mology or ought to. I may be somewhere in transit.

Positioning oneself between modes of knowing

Let me consider the risks and costs to being positioned somewhere be-
tween modes of knowing. This approach to knowledge, as I have sug-
gested, runs the risk of exoticizing, even while finding out something
of the ordinary, day-to-day worldview of others. Concerning the story