This text, prepared at the invitation of the American Historical Association for its opening plenary session in January 2001, concerns the construction of historical narrative by anthropologists, in particular myself. It quickly traces anthropologists' growing concerns with ethical and epistemological issues and the effects this has had on narrative strategies. And it provides a brief overview of my own experiments with narrative form in history, beginning with First-Time and Alabi's World, and ending with The Convict and the Colonel.
Anthropology; ethnography; narrative; trajectory
