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The Internet allows ethnographers to deposit the textual materials on which they base their writing in virtual archives. Electronically archived fieldwork documents can be accessed at any time by the writer, his or her readers, and the people studied. Johannes Fabian, a leading theorist of anthropological practice, argues that virtual archives have the potential to shift the emphasis in ethnographic writing from the monograph to commentary. In this insightful study, he returns to the recording of a conversation he had with a ritual healer in the Congolese town of Lubumbashi more than three decades ago. Fabian's transcript and translation of the exchange have been deposited on a website (Language and Popular Culture in Africa), and in Ethnography as Commentary he provides a model of writing in the presence of a virtual archive

The Internet allows ethnographers to deposit the textual materials on which they base their writing in virtual archives. Electronically archived fieldwork documents can be accessed at any time by the writer, his or her readers, and the people studied. Johannes Fabian, a leading theorist of anthropological practice, argues that virtual archives have the potential to shift the emphasis in ethnographic writing from the monograph to commentary. In this insightful study, he returns to the recording of a conversation he had with a ritual healer in the Congolese town of Lubumbashi more than three decades ago. Fabian's transcript and translation of the exchange have been deposited on a website (Language and Popular Culture in Africa), and in Ethnography as Commentary he provides a model of writing in the presence of a virtual archive.

Although it helps to be aware of what philosophers think about knowledge, anthropologists can neither simply relegate their epistemological problems to, nor find solutions in, philosophy. In anthropology, knowing what and how we know is a practical, not just a theoretical, problem, one we face in all phases of our work, from field research to writing (and teaching). Historical recollections of debates since the 1960s are followed by consideration of two aspects of the knowledge question in our discipline: 'Knowledge of what?' and 'Whose knowledge?' Guided by reflections on knowledge and survival, the article ends by addressing the question of ethnographic evidence in the context of a current project.RésuméS'il est utile de savoir ce que les philosophes pensent de la connaissance, les anthropologues ne peuvent pas se contenter de déléguer à la philosophie pour leurs problèmes épistémologiques, ni d'y chercher des solutions. En anthropologie, le problème de savoir ce que l'on sait et comment on le sait n'est pas seulement théorique mais pratique ; nous le rencontrons à chaque phase de notre travail, des recherches sur le terrain à l'écriture et à l'enseignement. L'auteur fait suivre ici les rappels historiques des débats qui ont eu lieu depuis les années 1960 d'une analyse de deux aspects de la question des connaissances dans notre discipline : « connaissance de quoi ? » et « connaissance de qui ? » Guidé par une réflexion sur le savoir et la survie, l'article s'achève par l'examen de la question des preuves ethnographiques dans le contexte d'un projet en cours.