Between testimony and alterity

frictions between fields in the construction of meaning

Abstract

The text investigates the relationships between the status of testimony and alterity in the work of constructing meaning in an anthropological experience, namely, the encounter between the anthropologist and the bear. It is, therefore, a paradigm shift in the position of the observer and his object. In the book, Martin establishes a horizontal relationship between the anthropologist and her object, represented by the bear. This situation places the anthropologist herself, who is responsible for elaborating the meaning of the experience, in a position of witness and interpreter of what has been experienced.