Edward Absemight not understand (for example, in the terms of a style of dream
analysis very different from their own). Furthermore, even while talk-
ing together with them, we do not necessarily share our hosts’ beliefs
about the world, yet we must show ourselves to be conversant in the
issues that most interest us in order to provoke deeper conversation
about these topics. This priming the pump often involves feigned ad-
herence to attitudes and ideas foreign and even contradictory to our
own. Certainly, in research on esoteric traditions, rarely will anyone
tell you but just a little bit more than they at least think you already
know and have properly understood, or, in our terms, “believe.”^4
From the Mazatec point of view, insofar as I understand it, my pre-
occupations about the problem of honesty in this regard would be seen
as futile. For them, I would imagine, the question ought to be framed
not in terms of belief or faith versus the doubt or skepticism we must
admit informs our complex anthropological (re)interpretations, but
rather in terms of knowledge about the world around us versus igno-
rance. Accepting their own categories of understanding, then, perhaps
removes this particular issue, at least, from ethical consideration. For
the Mazatecs, pretending to be knowledgeable when one is in fact ig-
norant is not so much a problem of deceit as it is one of foolishness.
That said, we must still consider the ethical quandary of choos-
ing between honoring Don Nicolás’s claims that Mazatec shamanic
knowledge is a collective cultural property not to be shared with out-
siders and accepting Don Patricio’s gift of that knowledge, which he
feels is his to grant, or perhaps even to sell. My acceding to the elder
shaman’s moral demand, while never addressed directly to me but
made to the younger shaman, would have implied either going na-
tive or burning my fieldnotes and going home. It may be impossible
to decide who is right and who is wrong: Don Nicolás or Don Patri-
cio? In the end, I chose not to relinquish the responsibilities I had as-
sumed in my role as ethnographer, a decision that may appear only
to beg the question but which was made in the sincere belief that it is
not my place to judge an issue between Mazatecs. What I did, then,
was to continue to pursue my research with Don Patricio and the
other shamans who were still willing to work with me, while risking
the hazards involved.