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Clothing the Body in Otherness
shall there be granddaughters, dressed in the traje, to represent lin-
eages of spiritual power while telling the tales.
Working and Being Worked in the Field
There are many ways to come into knowledge. Studies within librar-
ies and archives have their own well-deserved claims to academic au-
thority. Other ways of knowing, opened to the extraordinary, to the
sensations of otherworldliness that may be experienced in the field,
more personal and indeterminate, also deserve their place in the dis-
cipline of anthropology. Such experiences often remain unacknowl-
edged because they elude description, logic, and boundedness. Yet
they obtrude within memory, belying the appearance of obvious so-
lutions; they call for more encompassing understandings of the forces
in play. In this work with Vera and her tales, I have been challenged to
reconcile the difference between the ideal appearance of women and
the negative connotations and the violent emotions aroused when a
woman changes radically in form and behavior. But more than that, I
have had to work toward deep changes in the way that I approach my
studies and to grow more comfortable with the space between catch-
ing and being caught, recognizing this as the space of creative imagi-
nation and understanding.
A tale carries a fascination wherein the energy invested and val-
ues proposed move and change the people who carry and otherwise
work with it. In a sense, a tale cares for itself, opening the conscious-
ness of its carriers and driving them to create spaces where the tales
may be unbundled to do further work in human affairs. While much
of my work has been to write about what I make of these tales, I have
also had to consider what they have made of me. Challenged by the
inherent logic of the tale world to perceive a different way of being, I
have become part of the weaving of the tale, seeking to do justice to
its telling, its bearers, and the loom of their culture.
Notes
1. Lake Atitlun, at an elevation of 5 , 125 feet, is situated between the coastal plains and
the highlands in the mountainous Department of Sololu, in the southwestern part of Gua-
temala. The lake region forms a corridor between the Pacific Coast, the Highlands, and the
