ABSTRACT
Writing is integral to most scholarly enquiry. Greatly to our collective benefit, Clifford Geertz reflected publicly and prolifically about anthropological and other writing, not least on the topic that has engaged numerous anthropologists over many years: how the nuances and subtle techniques of anthropologists' writing contribute to the authority of their texts. The research was conceived in 1972 to examine the impact on a buoyant but obviously remote Shetland island community of the development of the North Sea oil industry. A problem faced in writing about Whalsay would be familiar to many anthropologists. The author felt that no interaction, no utterance could be taken at face value. It all entailed complexity. Many anthropologists will have felt similarly. In those days, the societies we studied were highly vulnerable and needed to be understood and represented through anthropological writing which was tantamount to a kind of advocacy.
