Book Review:

Taking Our Informants Seriously

David Young and Jean-Guy Goulet. Being Changed By Cross-

CulturalEncounters : The Anthropology ofExtraordinary Expe-

rience. Peterborough: Broadview Press, 1994, 378 pp.

Derek Blair

Carleton University

For the past fifteen years or so, anthropologists have engaged in debates

examining the place as well as the construction of the subject in the

ethnographic project. Various positions have taken guises such as

postmodernism, interpretive and reflexive anthropology, and anthropologi-

cal poetics. Regardless ofthe outcomes ofthese debates, one can in the least

acknowledge their contribution to the anthropological project; they have

persuaded us to re-examine where anthropology has come from—and where
it is going. The exploitative nature of field relations having been thoroughly

revealed to us, we have been forced to examine our personal epistemological
constructions. Is this only 'navel gazing,' as some anthropologists argue (eg.

Polier and Roseberry, 1989)? Not always. Nevertheless, simply cataloguing

our biases (personal and epistemological) won't take us far. What we are

slowly coming to terms with is that our cross cultural encounters might be

tools for better understanding our own personal and cultural 'realities.'

Seriously entertaining the notion that self and Other are two aspects of the

same reality requires seriously considering what our cultural counterparts

have to say. It is in this respect that Young's and Goulet's Being Changed

offers an insightful perspective, one which is uncluttered by anthropological

jargon, and one which refuses to be caught up in the 'post' critical debates.

As a first step... anthropologists can begin to take their informants

seriously and to entertain the idea that an informant's account may be more

than a "text" to be analyzed. It may have something of value to contribute to

our understanding of reality (Young and Goulet: 12).

Alternate Routes, Volumne 12, 1995

jffil



Alternate Routes, Volume 12, 1995

This edited compilation is comprised ofeleven essays which are divided

into four subsections. The book attempts to do three things. First, it provides

accounts ofanthropologists who havehad extraordinary experiences, or have

chosen to seriously consider extraordinary accounts experienced by their

informants. Next, it works toward the establishment of a theoretical frame-

work through which extraordinary experiences might be explained. Finally,

it explores the issue of what we are to make of extraordinary experiences.

These do not neatly fit western scientific notions and therefore might readily

be met with skepticism. How might they be conveyed to an audience which
is predisposed to a rationalized conception of 'scientific thinking?' There is

no easy answer to this question. Nevertheless, we can begin this project by

seriously considering the extraordinary experiences as reported by our

informants.

The first section: "Extraordinary Experience and Fieldwork," includes

contributions by Jean-Guy Goulet, Marie Francoise Guedon, and Edith

Turner. Goulet' s essay is entitled "Dreams and Visions in Other Lifeworlds"

and in it he documents his experiences from fieldwork among the Dene Tha

of Northern Alberta and the Guajiro of South America. He begins with

Geertz's assertion that "we cannot live other people's lives, and it is a piece

of bad faith to try," but disagrees with his stipulation that we "can but listen

to what, in works, in images, in actions, [others] say about their lives" (25).

Can wego beyond the limitations that Geertz sees for us? Goulet believes that

we can, that it is possible to experience the world of the cultural Other to a

certain degree. He recalls an experience he had while on fieldwork among the

Dene Tha of Chateh in Northern Alberta where he was sitting with some

elders about a fire in a teepee. The smoke was becoming heavy and was

irntatinghis eyes when hesuddenly found himselfstaringat a life-sized image

of himself fanning the fire with his hat. A moment later in the 'real' world, a
non-Native arose and began blowing on the fire. At this point, he was

instructed to stop this immediately, since such actions would "offend spiritual

entities and induce a violent windstorm in the camp" (30). The proper way of

fanning a fire was by the use of a hat or some other object. Goulet explains

how he envisioned the proper way of conduct among the Dene Tha—the
proper way of fanning a fire, without having had any prior knowledge of the

subject His approach to understanding foreign cosmologies entails an

acknowledgment that the reality of the cultural Other is nothing but a

transformation of his own western reality:



I understand a people among whom dreams are readily talked
about and interpreted when I can relate to them in such a way that

their dreams make reasonable sense to me, as mine to them,

precisely because they exhibit similar contents or images, are

amenable to similar kinds ofinterpretations, or are seen locally as

consistent with the expected consequences of ritual actions ( 1 8).

Citing Rappaport, he argues that empiricism and rationality are incom-

patible with many of the experiences associated with the world of visions,

dreams, and religion, and that 'good ethnography' should encourage us to

challenge our own rationalized assumptions.

Marie Francoise Guedon's "Dene Ways and the Ethnographer's Cul-

ture" demonstrates how she "could not learn about Dene ways of life and

language without [herself] growing into this learning" (41). For Guedon, not

only did her field experience result in personal transformation, but it also

forced her to question the adequacy and cross-cultural validity of western

conceptualizations. This is demonstrated in her discussion about western

conceptualizations ofculture andhow these clashed with those ofthe Natives

.

Western anthropologists tend to emphasize technology and material condi-

tions when defining a foreign culture and assessing the extent of cultural tfft
change (49). For the Dene, technology does not appear as a part of 'culture'

(47) since what they might consider as culture is processual, and involves

personal knowledge, stories, myths and dreams, and territorial locales

associated withthese. Believingthat anthropological theory should reflect the

thought world of those we study as well as our academic traditions (62),
Guedon concludes that "The manner in which I tell and use a story will say

as much about my participation in the Dene Ways (my Dene identity) as the
story itself (61). She seems to be looking for a medium. As far as culture is

concerned, she learns that it "becomes what can be transmitted through

stories" (62). She likes Sapir's 1 924 definition of culture "not as knowledge,

nor as manner, but as life" (63).

The final essay in this section is contributed by Edith Turner, and she

tells of her extraordinary experience of witnessing the emergence of the

ihamba (tooth) spirit from the body of an ill-stricken Native while on

fieldwork in Zambia in 1 985. Had she not been able to abandon her western

conceptualizations, she believes that she might otherwise have seen this

experience as fraud or trickery. Turner does this in a manner which we have

come to expect from her—with a narrative voice, arguing that what often



Alternate Routes, Volume12, 1995

appears to be shamanic trickery really is not (89). She gives examples of

shamanic healing, such as that presented in the film Sucking Doctor, where

the shaman is seen as sucking an intrusive power from various bodies.

Western skeptics often merely state that the object, which the shaman "sucks"

into his mouth was merely secreted there prior to the healing. Turner's

chapter, "A Visible Spirit Form in Zambia" provides another view. She

argues that an informed understanding of shamanism will easily account for

these misguided perceptions and explanations.

The next section of essays is entitled "Modeling Extraordinary Expe-

rience." It contains contributions from Charles Laughlin, Rab Wilkie, and

David Young. Laughlin' s essay is entitled "Psychic Energyand Transpersonal

Experience. A biogenetic structural account of the Tibetan Dumo Yoga
Practice." Here, he describes how mystical and yogic traditions are based on

models which involve the movement of energy in the body, and he provides

a personal account ofhis experiences . These are explained in biopsychological

terms (100). He advocates a transpersonal approach to understanding such

mystical experiences. This approach allows for "participant comprehen-

sion," which "requires that more emphasis be placed upon participation, than

upon more passive observation... participation requires 'suspension of

'Br disbelief "(102). Laughlin draws on Gellhom's theory ofautonomic-somatic

integration (1967) to explain the experiences occurring in altered states of

consciousness which involve "higher experiences of psychic energy" (118).

The result is an explanation ofhowtheergotropic system (which "subserves. .

.

the physiological components of our adaptive strategies to desirable or

noxious stimuli in the environment" (118)) works with the trophotropic

system ("responsible for regulating all the vegetative functions, such as

reconstruction ofgrowth cells, digestion..." (1 19)) in both a complementary

and antagonistic manner in order to achieve bodily homeostasis. With this,

Laughlin attempts to find a middle ground between emics and etics: "Indeed

it is my beliefthat anthropological science derives from applying etic methods

and explanations of human activities to the fullest possible range of emic

data" (102).

Young's essay "Visitors in the Night: A Creative Energy Model of
Spontaneous Visions" provides a contrast to Laughlin's work. It is not as

scientifically descriptive, though it posits a framework which does justice to

the views ofthe cultural Other without forsaking theintegrity of 'science' (see

Introduction) Young points out that when informants report having had

visions, anthropologists have in the past accepted this as data, attempting to



explain it using some type ofanalytic framework in order to demonstrate how

this experience fits into the greater cultural theme (167). On the other hand,

when the anthropologist is subjected to such extraordinary experiences, he/

she often ends up disregarding it as inappropriate data. Young describes two

ofhis own visions, which appear to have taken forms analogous with the two

belief systems most familiar to him, Zen Buddhism and Native North

American religion. Here, he illustrates his three-stage Creative Energy

Model. The model should allowforthe serious consideration and explanation

of extraordinary experiences that would otherwise be dubbed simply as

'unscientific' and therefore non-empirical. Inanutshell, Young is advocating

an "as if approach to understanding our cultural Others and takingwhat they

have to report seriously. He argues that suspending disbelief requires
adopting the attitude that extraordinary accounts heard in the field could in

fact be true, should be approached "as if' they were, and are therefore worthy

of serious consideration. He concludes: "It is time that we as anthropologists

begin to take our informants more seriously and attempt to build models that

will dojustice to our own scientific world view. . . and the world view ofthose

who see reality in a different way" (191). This does not mean that testable

scientific hypotheses are a necessary component to scientific validity.

Rab Wilkie's essay "Spirited Imagination: Ways of Approaching the
Shaman's World" deals with the question "What happens when we open

ourselves to others, specifically those who are at home in a world that to us

seems strange ?" (139). This is addressed through the documentation of a

roundtable discussion which occurred in Edmonton, Alberta. Two central
discussions are presented: one deals with an extraordinary encounter which

one ofthe discussants had experienced, the other is a reaction of the various

informants to a guided visualization. Reactions range from skepticism to

valid acknowledgment ofthe extraordinary experiences, and the point of the

essay becomes a lesson in suspending rationalized disbelief. Though a guided

visualization might seem contrived, it can certainly lead to the spirit world if

we let it, as one ofthe discussants points out. For Wilkie, anthropologists as
human beings have the capacity to be changed by "opening ourselves" to new

experiences, though what this 'change' constitutes depends on who we are

(158).

The third section of the book is entitled "Taking Our Informants

Seriously," and contains essays by C. Roderick Wilson, Lise Swartz, and

Antonia Mills. Wilson is concerned for anthropologists tfiat "failing to

change our normal ways ofperceiving, we see not what they, our informants



Alternate Routes, Volume12, 1995

and the people wework with, are seeing" ( 1 98). In his essay "Seeing They See
Not," he recalls his own fieldwork among the Waorani in Amazonian

Equador to demonstrate that even our perception of colour is bounded by

western normalized conceptions. His title is from a biblical passage, Matthew

13, and it implies that because we cannot allow ourselves new perceptions,
we do not see what is before us (206). Wilson gives examples which have, in
fact, changed him. He is concerned "about the fact that my vision is so
'normalized' that I could not see what was literally in front of my face" (99)
and provides suggestions, sometimes similar to Young's, as to how we can
avoid perceptual barriers and seriously consider non-conventional cultural

assumptions and experiences.

Lise Swaitz's eponymous essay, "Being Changed by Cross-Cultural

Encounters" discusses how her life at sea was changed as a result ofher work
with a Woods Cree medicine man (211). In a narrative account of her
experience on board a sailing ship, she tells of how her belief in guardian
spirits and the power of a protector which she received from her Cree friend,

"grew to the point where [she] could not begin or end a sailing expedition

without making appropriate prayers or offerings" (2 1 5). She claims this is a

result of having taken seriously the advice and visions of her Cree friend,

whom she considers to be her informant.
Antonia Mills discusses the possibility of believing in reincarnation in,

"Making a Scientific Investigation of Ethnographic Cases Suggestive of

Reincarnation."
1

She believes that anthropologists can, in fact, make scientific

investigations which will allow us to assess whether a belief in reincarnation

is justified. She cites two cases of reincarnation as reported by the Gitskan of

British Columbia, and a Hindu village in Etawah, India. Though both cases

are somewhat questionable, Mills suggests that we do not cast them aside as
indicating that reincarnation is an inconceivable phenomenon. As a result of

these examinations and others from her fieldwork experiences, she admits

that the reported cases certainly do not prove that reincarnation has taken

place, but she is not satisfied with the concept of "cultural construction" (the

community's desire to believe in reincarnation which often results in the

"construction" of evidence to support it) as an adequate alternative explana-

tion. Establishing criteria for the assessment of whether reincarnation has in

fact occurred, Mills believes that current evidence suggests that reincarnation

should not be dismissed.

In the "Conclusion" to the book, Yves Marion's "The Experiential

Approach to Anthropology and Castaneda's Ambiguous Legacy" explores



the issues and controversies surrounding the work of Carlos Castaneda and

his accounts ofhis spiritual apprenticeship with a Yaqui sorcerer bythe name

ofDon Juan (23). Marton deals with the controversy surroundmgCastaneda's
work. He notes Castaneda's questionable integrity as a social scientist, his
truthfulness, and his self-mystification. But Marton also argues that what

Castaneda was presenting in the late 1960's was a rather non-conventional

ethnographic depiction. In short, Castaneda's was the first extensive account

of a spiritual and extraordinary account by a social scientist (273). In this

sense, Marton presents this work as "innovative within anthropology, both in

its format. . . and in the abundance andtype ofexperiences that it reported from

the field" (274). Regardless of how one perceives the legacy of Castaneda,
Marton admits that it has certainly had an impact on experiential anthropol-

ogy.

Comment

This edited compilation is a comment on western epistemological construc-

tions (anthropology is, after all, a western phenomenon). It argues that

rational boundedness has hampered the ethnographic endeavor. An emic
viewpoint is often the desired goal of ethnography and tins usually requires |tt|

some sort of 'suspension ofdisbelief,' since the experience of fieldwork often

situates the anthropologist in what would appear to the western world as

extraordinary circumstances. To western societies which acknowledge only

one mode of reality—that based on physical concreteness, ideas such as
shamanic healing, multiple levels of reality, and the senousness of the

dreamworld, appear quite bizarre since our rational boundedness encourages

us to question the 'truth' of such ideas. To our cultural counterparts, as these

essays demonstrate, these experiences are quite often ordinary. Anthropolo-

gists often entertain such 'extraordinary' ideas during the moment of

fieldwork, but the return to the 'commonsense reality' often means a return

to rationalism. In fact, that return is where Being Changed begins, where

"one's informants are not taken seriously" (10). This idea comes out the

strongest in Young and Goulet's concluding essay "Theoretical and Meth-

odological Issues," as well as in Goulet's own essay. The contributors to this

volume become exemplary: they have opened themselves up to the experience

and reality ofthe cultural Other. The result is that they have themselves been

changed, and the anthropological experience extends long beyond the field-

work moment since they, like the mythical hero, bring a boon back from their



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Alternate Routes, Volume 12, 1995

journey. This boon is quite intangible and comes packaged in the form of

experience—the result is the expansion ofthe perceptual lens and a validation
of the cross-cultural experience. In other words, these accounts are by

anthropologists who have chosen to take their informants seriously.
The highlights of the volume are the essays by Goulet and Wilkie.

Goulet's essay brings to mind how western perceptions of the dreamworld
contrast with those perceptions of the Guajiro and Dene Tha. Among the
latter, dreams a re taken quite seriously and are given a special respect. Goulet

himselfwas reassured: "yes, your dreams are true!" On the other hand, in the

western world, when our children awake frightened by night visitors, we
comfort them with the assurance that "it wasjust a dream." Thus, we deny
the reality ofthe experience. Wilkie's essay, on the other hand, provides the

reader with an informative discussion about issues of suspending disbelief

and extraordinary experience. In his conclusion, he clarifies the 'true' nature

of that Edmonton meeting: the "meeting purportedly recorded in the above

'transcript' is fictitious. It did take place, but only in the author's imagina-

tion" (162). In this sense, the essay itself, as well as its content, becomes a

lesson in the suspension of disbelief when opening ourselves up to non-

ordinary, 'strange' experiences. In fact, the reading ofthe essay becomes an

extraordinary experience. Read this essaytwice to get the point. Approaching

it first as fact causes the reader to address it and its issues with a particular

epistemological set. Upon the knowledge that it is 'non-factual,' this episte-

mological set changes, and the message is different. Embedded western

rationalized assumptions cannot allow us to take Wilkie seriously. Neverthe-

less, anthropological studies of myth, dreams, and religion, show that truth

is hardly contingent on historical fact. Here, an epistemological shift means

personal transformation. Wilkie tells us, echoing Goulet, that he cannot begin

to understand extraordinary experiences and world-views without paying

attention to his own ( 1 63). In other words, he brings back a piece ofthe field

with him, which means suspending disbelief and acknowledging the

boundedness of our cultural constructions. Even if 'the field' in this case is

a fictitious boardroom in Edmonton. Regardless, Wilkie's essay provides the

reader with an exercise in rationality.

The essays fit tightly together and it becomes obvious that the editors

went to great lengths in assuring a complementarity between them. However,

there is one exception, the essay by Swartz. Here is a writer whose entire

argument is based on her assertion that "I took my informant seriously" (226)
Nevertheless, it is highly questionable that Russell Willier, her Cree friend,



can under the circumstances be seen as 'her informant.' Swartz's 'ethno-

graphic description' is uncontextualized as anthropological research and

comes across as an extended holiday. Did she indeed take him 'seriously?'

She provides two particular instances when she was given the opportunity to

participate in a ceremonial ritual, involving fasting andpraying. Thepotential

result in the first instance was learning ofher guardian spi rit and in the second

instance her being given a protector. Under both circumstances, she states

that "time and circumstances did not permit this" (213-214) even though in

the second case, "Russell would recommend, even if this should delay my
departure. ... that I participate in a four-day vision quest... where I would be

given a protector" (2 14). Instead, she arrangedto meet him the day before her

departure so that she could obtain this protector. Certainly one cannot be

expected to believe that Russell was taken seriously! The author's life was in

danger, but "circumstances could not allow" for her to consider either his

request or her own safety? Beyond this, the degradation ofthe four day ritual

to an adhoc meeting, is a comment regarding not only the level ofseriousness

with which the Other was approached, but also the amount of respect allotted

to the cultural traditions of the Other.

For the most part, these essays provide instances where anthropologists

have in the least gained greater self-understanding by opening themselves up

to the world-views of those they study. Thus the firework endeavor is

presented as a learning experience. Michael Taussighas recently raised these

issues in Mimesis andAlterity ( 1 993), where he documents how the concepts

of mimesis (imitation) and alterity (otherness) play off one another in

maintaining and strengthening cultural solidarities and identity. He chooses

the Kuna Indians as his example. Among the Kuna, the Self is understood

through an examination of its Alter. Thus, Kuna ritual and mythological

incorporations of European characters and characteristics have the purpose

of strengthening their identity at a personal and collective level. As an

example, C. Roderick Wilson has affirmedthat his cross-cultural experiences

have strengthened his Christian views, when one might certainly have

expected the opposite (207). Similarly, the work of Young and Goulet

informs us that it is through accepting as valid the experiences of our cultural

counterparts, that we can better understand our own conventional realities.

But this will require an acknowledgment ofthe scientific limitations imposed

by western rationality.

Being Changedcan, perhaps, be considered as following in thetradition

ofTurner's and Bruner's The Anthropology ofExperience ( 1986), Benson's



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Alternate Routes, Volume12, 1995

Anthropology and Literature (1993), and Brady's Anthropological Poetics

(199 1). It foregrounds the question ofvalidity, epistemology, and experience

which necessarily arise when one immerses oneself in a culture which at a

surface level appears so veryforeign and extraordinary. These essays provide

a comment on these issues and, uncluttered by thick description and anthro-

pological jargon, a long overdue comment on experiential anthropology. The

dialogical relationship between the cultural Other and the anthropologist is

enhanced by viewing each as different aspects of the same essence, the same

reality. The result is one of the most informative and entertaining compila-

tions to come about in a long while.

References

Benson, Paul, ed.

1993[1989] Anthropology and Literature. Urbana: University of Illinois Press.

Brady, Ivan, ed.

1991 Anthropological Poetics. Maryland: Rowman and Littlefield.

Gellhorn, E.

1 967 Principles ofA utonomic-Somatic Integrations. Minneapolis: University

of Minnesota Press.

Polier, Nicole and William Roseberry

1989 'Tristes-tropes: postmodern anthropologists encounter the other and

discover themselves." Economy and Society 18:245-264.

Taussig, Michael

1993 Mimesis and Alterity. New York: Routledge.

Turner, Victor and Edward Bruner, eds.

1986 The Anthropology ofExperience. Urbana: University of Illinois Press.