Spirits and sex A Swahili informant and his diary

In recent years, as part of an increasingly reflexive trend in anthropology, a number of books have examined the nature of the relationship between anthropologist and informant. Some have presented portraits (e.g. Casagrande 1959; Dumont 1978; Read 1965; Turner 1967), some have reproduced their words as texts (e.g. Griaule 1948) or their dialogues with them (Dwyer 1982), or a combination of these (Crapanzano 1980); some have presented informants through autobiography or life history (e.g. Shostak 1981).