A Review of Paul Stoller, Wisdom from the Edge: Writing Ethnography in Turbulent Times. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2023, XVII+186 pp.

Abstract

The book explores issues of ethnographic writing, the objectives of anthropology, and indigenous knowledge in the context of global environmental changes. The author argues that the key task of an anthropologist is to write memorable ethnographic stories. Ethnographic stories can capture the readers’ attention and immerse them in the unique atmosphere of the place being studied. Stoller argues that the anthropologist’s embrace of the artistic dimension of writing plays a key role in this process. Through the articulation of sensory qualities (sounds, smells, and tastes), the atmosphere of a place can be conveyed. The ability of anthropological writing to reflect the “wisdom” of other cultures is no less important to the author. The author argues that engaging with indigenous ways of perceiving space and time is a way to overcome the current environmental crisis. The review focuses on several arguments that are at the centre of the book. On the one hand, it highlights the connection between the positioning of anthropology as a type of “storytelling” and the commercial strategies of the publishing business. The strengthening of this connection leads to a further loss of the relative autonomy of the discipline. On the other hand, it calls into question Stoller’s neo-Rousseauist rhetoric in which other cultures are imagined as an inversion of the capitalist West.