Jean-Guy A. Gouletof the Pacific Northwest reminded us long ago: “Dead, I say? There
is no death. Only a change of worlds” (McLuhan 1971 , 30 ). This is a
truth that contemporary aboriginal peoples subscribe to. In this pa-
per, I write an ethnographical report with this truth in mind. In other
words, I follow as closely as possible the Dene Tha “cognitive and
spiritual map” in deciding how to interact with others and reach ap-
propriate ethical decisions in their midst. The outcome, I hope, is a
modest contribution, in conjunction with the contributions of other
papers in this book, to the development of an ethnographic genre that
moves beyond the constraints of classic, modern ethnography.
Not Stealing Someone’s Opportunity to LearnAnthropologists want and need to write.^5 The question is how, for
whom, and in terms of what epistemological and ontological assump-
tions? Anthropologists meet others where they are “at home.” In a
process of immersion in a new social environment, mishaps, misun-
derstandings, even confrontations with one’s hosts in their home, are
unavoidable. Why? Because the foreign anthropologist has so much
to learn: the expectations one is to meet on a daily basis given one’s
age, gender, and economic status, for instance; the positions one oc-
cupies relative to one’s hosts and relative to other local and regional
actors—including local spirits and ancestors; the language, verbal and
non-verbal, through which communication flows effortlessly between
members of the group.
In the anthropological profession, rejection from the people whom
one wants to understand and/or study is perhaps the most dreaded
fate. A degree of hospitality in the midst of others is the necessary
condition for the anthropological endeavor. Social acceptance, how-
ever, is not a temporal event as is, for instance, one’s arrival in such
and such a place at such and such a time. Social acceptance is a con-
tinuously unfolding process within social relationships. In most cases,
initial acceptance leads to a long process of learning by trial and er-
ror. In such circumstances, investigation is never initiated by “turn-
ing our gaze on objects,” or human subjects, available to unintrusive
observation. Inevitably, investigation involves “confrontation that