Millie Creightonflexibility, involving the capacity to shift from set patterns or guide-
lines, depending on circumstances. This quality has been designated
the “flexible intelligence” of human beings. Using one’s intelligence, in-
cluding this profound human capacity for flexible intelligence, should
not be seen as a challenge to notions of responsible research practice.
I am reminded of a posting on individual responsibility and account-
ability I once encountered in a very different context, while on a ski-
ing outing. Posted signs communicated a two-part mandate for re-
sponsible skiing. One tenet stated: “Be prepared by having a plan.”
The next tenet stated: “Be prepared to abandon or change your plans
as circumstances develop or change.” Similar advice, often given for
how we should live our lives, is apparently ruled out in research about
how other people live their lives. Some would bind us hard and fast
to empirical methods as a necessary condition of good ethnography.
An axiom for good government is that one should govern by reason
and not by rule. Good ethnography is generated when we have re-
search objectives and plans but allow ourselves (and are allowed) to
change them depending on contingencies and on the researcher’s shift-
ing sense of opportunities in the field.
This second story unfolds in the mid 1990 s, when I was in Japan to
conduct research as part of a Japan Foundation project. My part of
the group project was to look at contemporary Ainu activities, par-
ticularly those framed around Ainu identity constructions. Much of
the work was done in Nibutani, Japan, on the island of Hokkaido ̄,
where the largest remaining Ainu community in Japan (and the world)
resided. I had already been to Nibutani and other areas of Hokkaido ̄
researching the effects of dam-construction projects on Ainu life and
cultural-revival attempts (see Creighton 1995 c, 2003 ). In 1994 , I made
return visits to some of these communities, notably in Nibutani, to
gather additional information (and possibly collect further facts). Al-
together, the time spent in Nibutani was quite productive. I felt that I
had exhausted what I could in relationship to the project there.
Prior to leaving for one’s fieldwork, it is not always clear exactly
how long data collection will take, and often we find ourselves frus-
trated when time seems to run out. In this case, I felt I had some time
in my schedule before flying out of Sapporo (the closest large city to