Participant Observer: Memoir of a Transatlantic Life

588 Pages·2004·26.062 MB·English

by  Robin Fox

Books by Robin Fox
The Keresan Bridge: A Problem in Pueblo Ethnology
Kinship and Marriage: An Anthropological Perspective
The Imperial Animal (with Lionel Tiger)
Encounter with Anthropology
Biosocial Anthropology (editor and contributor)
The Tory Islanders: A People of the Celtic Fringe
The Red Lamp of Incest:
An Inquiry into the Origins of Mind and Society
Neonate Cognition: Beyond the Blooming Buzzing Confusion
(editor with Jacques Mehler)
The Violent Imagination
The Search for Society:
Quest for a Biosocial Science and Morality
Reproduction and Succession:
Studies in Anthropology, Law and Society
The Challenge of Anthropology:
Old Encounters and New Excursions
Conjectures and Confrontations:
Evolution, Science, Social Concern
The Passionate Mind: Origins of Destruction and Creativity
www.robinfoxbooks.com

First published 2004 by Transaction Publishers
Published 2017 by Routledge
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Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
Copyright © 2004 by Taylor & Francis.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or
utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now
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information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from
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Notice:
Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and
are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe.
Library of Congress Catalog Number: 2004047953
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Fox, Robin, 1934-
Participant observer : memoir of a transatlantic life / Robin Fox.
p.cm.
ISBN 0-7658-0238-4 (alk. paper)
1. Fox, Robin, 1934- 2. Anthropologists—England—Biography.
3. Anthropologists—United States—Biography. I. Title.
GN21.F6A3 2004
301'.092—dc22 2004047953
[B]
ISBN 13: 978-0-7658-0238-5 (hbk)
This book is dedicated to everyone who appears in it,
even the apparently undeserving.
Thank you all for an interesting life.

Contents
Acknowledgements ix
Introit xi
Part 1: Stages in a Life
1. The Child: Dancing for the Woolworth Ladies 3
2. The Boy: Making It to the Next Foxhole 45
3. The Youth: Coming in on Roller Skates 77
4. The Student: Putting on the Masks 115
5. The Novice: Mixing with the Yeast Enzymes 165
6. The Initiate: Journeying through Wonderland 197
7. The Apprentice: Letting the Soul Catch Up 251
8. The Idea: Challenging the Dominant Males 297
9. The Career: Telling God Your Plans 365
10. The Book: Engaging the Living Fossils 413
Part 2: Scenes from a Life
11. The Dances: Communing with Strange Gods 465
12. The Man: Outwitting the British 479
13. The Hetaerae: Surviving Sex in the Seventies 491
14. The Bulls: Managing a Magus in Colombia 505
15. The Meals: Eating Well While Thinking Big 515
Part 3: Reflections on a Life
16. The Point: Connecting with the Teenage Murderer 535
Recessional 575

Acknowledgements
The debts incurred over half a lifetime are implicitly acknowledged in the
text itself. Those incurred later, especially to Lin, await another volume, and so
may never be adequately recognized. I’m sorry. Several people were especially
encouraging about this particular project: Bruce Nichols, Don Lamm, Adam
Bellow. Others offered helpful corrections: Barnaby Conrad (on bullfighting
terms), Richard de Mille, Desmond Morris, Trevor (Lord) Smith. My deepest
thanks to Irving Louis Horowitz, prince of publishers, and Mary Curtis and the
staff of Transaction, especially Laurence Mintz (prince of editors) and Karen
Ornstein; to Chelsea Booth for reading the proofs, and Abigail Wright for the
music. Also thanks to Laura Nader, Burton Benedict, and the anthropologists at
Berkeley, who gave an oral version of chapter eight such a heartwarming recep-
tion, and to the Sandpipers of Sanibel Island, Florida, who were enduring friends
during some lonely and painful times of writing.
I was gently dissuaded from adding to my dedication (without explanation)
the remarkable Huguenot adventurer and poet, Agrippa d’Aubigné (1552-1630).
As well as being the grandfather of Mme. de Maintenon, Agrippa was, along
with Monluc and Montaigne, the inventor of the autobiographical style of the
Roi-Sujet: a style now completely taken for granted. But unlike his contempo-
raries, Agrippa, in Sa vie à ses enfants, used the “il” and not the “je” — so part
of my debt is obvious. (Thanks to Robert Muchambled for the introduction.)
R.F.
Princeton, NJ
June 2004
ix