Introduction

This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book aims to elucidate the process from individual experiences in the field to the production of general anthropological knowledge. It demonstrates how anthropology and autobiography merge in the process of knowledge production. The book shows that however much the anthropologist is part of the reality studied, it is real. It aims to a renew sense of anthropological authority as grounded in fieldwork and expressed in a sophisticated scholarly discourse. The book also shows that the reflexive relationship between the world studied and the students of the world have a peculiar reality in anthropology. It examines one concept which may actually link the experiential inside of reality and the analytical outside is the concept of common sense. The book discusses the embodiment of moral judgment and social criticism in a particular person in Karpathos.