Gentle Reader, 

  Much of this work was written for academic endeavors, papers at conferences, and the like; that work served its purpose well enough at the time. The customary formats used by scholarly journals (M.L.A., A.P.A.) are invaluable. Sometimes, though—for our purposes here—that style can be cold to the touch. 

    Thus, by and large, I have recast my earlier writing as essays. These are essays in the older sense of the term: a trial or an attempt, and that is all that they are meant to be. You’ll also find memoirs and quotes from my journals, the kinds of journals that fieldworkers often keep in order to record anecdotes, impressions, and notes on things that they don’t quite “get” yet.  In many cases I have added a preface and sometimes an afterword.