Ethnography and the Historical Imagination.

This book is a collection of articles previously published by the authors between 1985 and 1991 and includes such well-known essays as `Of totemism and ethnicity' and `Images of empire, contests of conscience' by John Comaroff, `Bodily reform as historical practice' by Jean Comaroff and `Goodly beasts, beastly goods', `The madman and the migrant', and `The colonization of consciousness' by the two jointly. The main thrust of their analysis will thus be familiar to many, and so their joint presentation at this time calls for a collective response. I will thus focus on their overall theoretical agenda and, as is appropriate for this journal, on its historical significance.

In the title essay written for this edition, the Comaroffs seek to rescue ethnography from `deconstructionist distrust' and `postmodern pique' by advocating a `neomodern …