Abstract
In this paper, I explore and elaborate similarities between the identity of mythological tricksters and ethnographic field researchers. As tricksters have multiple identities to mediate the unmediated (Basso 1996), so anthropologists adopt different identities in the field to reconcile the irreconcilable demands that are essential to ethnography. Participant observation reinforces the need to be flexible and to operate contextually. It requires anthropologists to engage in complex social realities and to detach themselves from the perplexities arising from their involvement in the social field of informants. The position of an anthropologist is ambiguous, but the tension between involvement and detachment may also be the secret behind anthropology’s insights into cultural and social dynamics.
