The anthropologist's memory. Retrospections or ex-post interpretations

Abstract

There are many voices of influential scholars who emphasize the relevance of the so-called serendipity in research; among them are not missing those of anthropologists (e.g., Hannerz, 2012).  They emphasize the value of discovery or, perhaps better, intuition, due to the unexpected, the dissonance, the apparent randomness of a passage, an encounter, an answer, a story, a reading, or similar. Often one does not initially pay attention to it, does not dwell on it much, only to go back and reconsider after a while. The memory (even perhaps supported by various notes) of the anthropologist then is characterized as a retrospective analysis of long termine, and plays a non-marginal role in the complex epistemology of the discipline.  In the text, I present a reflection on these points, beginning with my work with Ugo Fabietti.