I only got a chance to read a couple of the essays in this book before I had to return it to the library, but I loved the overall premise. Behar's first-person anthropological essays are perfect for the postmodern generation of intellectuals. Why pretend that we're unbiased, dispassionate observers when clearly we're human beings who are deeply affected when we witness war and poverty and other tragedies? Why has the Academy considered this distance to be preferable? I'm not an anthropologist myself, but I guess you could say I'm a writer/journalist and I think these principles can apply to this field as well. ( )