From Monologue to Dialogue or On the Ambiguity of Writing with Both Hands
This article examines the contrasted attitudes of the general public and that of the anthropologist’s peers which followed the publication of works written by professional anthropologists for a larger public -Michel Leiris, Claude Lévi-Strauss, Laura Bohannan, Nigel Barley among others. Writing on oneself in the field remains relatively rare in England and remains restricted for methodological use among the profession but it is now accepted in France for any kind of public, whereas, formerly totally forbidden in the United States, it has become, under the influence of Castaneda’s books -albeit proven fake- a « must » in some places under the term of dialogism.