SURFACES THAT TRUST. TWO EXPERIENCES

Two fieldwork experiences are compared here. At a first glance they seem to be quite different: On the one side, a traditionalist society is defending its culture and does not take the anthropologist for important. On the other side, a community depending on non-indigenous merchants respects the anthropologist as one more of those mighty invaders with whom you better cooperate. But in both cases, at the end the anthropologist must admit that he had not understood the situation. Under the surface of the differences, he discovers parallels. At a second glance, the indigenous society apparently dependent proves to be quite strong. And this is the anthropologist's profession: To understand the apparent and the occult of a society we visit, to the degree up to which this society decides to admit our understanding.