LYKKELIGST AT HVILE PÅ...

Resumé

This article assesses the perennial and

perhaps unquenchable thirst for the

anecdotal in anthropological research and

reflection. Our informants, who may not give

us long interviews or life histories, tell us,

nevertheless, rich anecdotes in everyday

conversations. Their choices of anecdotes

become our key indices. Ruth Benedict and

E.E. Evans-Pritchard are the article’s chief

cases. The social function of memory is

significant, and the article urges paying

attention to etymologies, especially of the

word “anecdote”, which literally means

“unpublished” and alludes to the secretive

that cannot be kept secret. The anecdote

becomes public but maintains its intimacy.

Both the telling and the told enter into the

pictorial, illustrative summation. The

iconographic method of art and literary

historians is akin to ethnographic method.

By recognizing and cultivating this kinship,

we become betler craftsmen in anthropology.

Vividness is inherent in theory.