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Embodied Knowledge
The epistemological value of ecstasis is truly grasped when we dis-
cover that, while letting go, we were also able to draw upon unan-
ticipated abilities to experience the real. In this sense, ecstasis “is not
the theoretical, logical opposite of control but becomes its pragmatic
and existential negation.” In brief,
Ecstasis, like empathy, communication, and dialogue, as well as
age, gender, social class, and relations of power, belongs to con-
cepts that impose themselves when we reflect critically about what
makes us succeed or fail in our efforts to produce knowledge about
Others. (Fabian 2000, 280)
We may add that this knowledge is also about Ourselves interacting
with Other subjects in their world (Fabian 2000 , 279 ). This is why
experiential ethnographers strive to write accounts of personal expe-
riences in the field without falling victim to the accusation of being
narcissistic, and thus invite the native’s reprimand: “That’s enough
talking about you, let’s talk about me!” (This joke, attributed to Mar-
shall Sahlins, is reported by George Marcus [ 1994 , 569 ] and repro-
duced by John Van Maanen 1995 , 29 .)
In many collections of similar papers, experiential ethnographers
do not write about themselves out of self-indulgence. Rather, they
acknowledge the significance of transformative moments in the field,
ones that changed them in a manner that definitely modified how they
viewed, reacted to, or understood events lived with others in the field
(Kisliuk 1997 , 39 ). To include such moments in one’s ethnographic
account is to present not only knowledge obtained but also the pro-
cesses through which such knowledge was gained and the circum-
stances in which such processes became operative.
The papers included in this book tend to differ significantly from
the ones published in Being Changed by Cross-Cultural Encounters
(Young and Goulet 1994 ). Essays in this book pay much closer at-
tention to the impact on the researcher and on one’s research proj-
ect of the social, economic, and political contexts of the lives of the
people with whom the ethnographer lives and works. This book fo-
cuses on the “ecstatic” side of fieldwork more than does The World
Observed: Reflections on the Fieldwork Process (Jackson and Ives,
