“In these easy-reading conversational essays, studded with jewels of ethnographic provocation, Johannes Fabian continues his language-centered anthropological meditations on denials of recognition, the study of popular culture as recognition of Africa’s vigor and contemporaneity, and the pragmatics of speech: ‘Who can talk straight when even using Belgian rather than French ways of counting (“septante-deux” not “soixante-douze”) could be denounced as anti-revolutionary?’ Fabian’s focus on terms of encounter, the work of commentary, and Internet archiving as ethnographic collaboratories disturbs our pious conventions.”—Michael M. J. Fischer, author of Emergent Forms of Life and the Anthropological Voice and Mute Dreams, Blind Owls, and Dispersed Knowledges “Fabian’s work continues to invite the direction of critical thought towards aspects of ethnographic inquiry, to the co-production of knowledge, and to broader theoretical concerns in anthropology. This collection simultaneously serves to remind us of his intellectual contributions to anthropology, and to see these contributions as continuing and growing.”
Katie Glaskin
Anthropological Forum