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Pinching the Crocodile's Tongue: Affinity and the Anxieties of Influence in Fieldwork
Author(s) -
Lambek Michael
Publication year - 1997
Publication title -
anthropology and humanism
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.153
H-Index - 17
eISSN - 1548-1409
pISSN - 1559-9167
DOI - 10.1525/ahu.1997.22.1.31
Subject(s) - crocodile , ethnography , ambiguity , sociology , anthropology , gender studies , history , ethnology , aesthetics , art , ecology , linguistics , philosophy , biology
This article is about my relationship with Dr. Emmanuel Tehindrazanarivelo, Malagasy‐Canadian friend, colleague, teacher, informant, and possibly the most cosmopolitan person I know. At one time he was to have been coauthor; as I will describe, things shifted so that his article is written in response to mine. I recount how my current fieldwork in the town and hinterland ofMahajanga in northwest Madagascar began quite literally with our chance meeting in Toronto, and I reflect on the ambiguity of ethnographic relations constituted "at home."