In “Ethnographic Objectivity Revisited: From Rigor to Vigor,” the
opening chapter of Anthropology with an Attitude: Critical Essays,
Fabian maintains that “much of our ethnographic research is carried
out best when we are ‘out of our minds,’ that is, while we relax our in-
ner controls, forget our purposes, let ourselves go. In short, there is an
ecstatic side to fieldwork which should be counted among the condi-
tions of knowledge production, hence of objectivity” ( 2001 , 31 ).^1 We
are in basic agreement with this view. We know firsthand that in our
own research activities we gained significant insights and knowledge
precisely when we found ourselves, inadvertently, beyond the boundar-
ies of our initial research intentions and proposals. The ecstatic side of
our fieldwork was experienced when the single-minded pursuit of data
within a clearly defined research agenda was momentarily set aside,
and the opportunity to enter deeply into the world of our hosts was
embraced. To our surprise, this led to insights and knowledge that re-
defined the relationships with our hosts, deepened our ability to inter-
act with them in more meaningful ways, and opened the door to epis-
temological and ontological issues that begged to be addressed.
We believe in the importance of reporting and reflecting upon these
crucial transformative moments experienced in the field. We know that
to stick “with ethnography through thick and thin” is to also partic-
ipate in efforts by many other anthropologists “to write one’s way
out of a tradition that one wants both to preserve and change” (Mar-
cus 1998 , 231 , 234 ). In this book, the aspect of the tradition to pre-
serve is that of intensive and extensive fieldwork, at home or abroad,
Introduction
Embodied Knowledge: Steps toward a Radical
Anthropology of Cross-cultural Encounters
jean-guy a. goulet & bruce granville miller