The central importance of entering into worlds other then our own — and hence of anthropology itself — lies in the fact that the experience leads us to understand that our own world is also a cultural construct. By experiencing other worlds, then, we see our own for what it is and are thereby enabled also to see fleet— ingly what the real world, the one between our own cultural construct and those other worlds, must in fact be like. Hence the allegory, as well as the ethnography. The wisdom and poetry of Don Juan, and the skill and poetry of his scribe, give us a vision both of ourselves and of reality. As in all proper allegory, what one sees lies with the beholder, and needs no exegesis here.
Carlos Castaneda's interviews with Don Juan were initiated while he was a student of anthropology at the University of California, Los Angeles. We are indebted to him for his patience, his courage, and his perspicacity in seeking out and facing the challenge of his dual apprenticeship, and in reporting to us the details of his experiences. In this work he demonstrates the essential skill of good ethnography — the capacity to enter into an alien world. I believe he has found a path with heart.
Walter Goldschmidt
Acknowledgements
I wish to express profound gratitude to Professor Clement Meig— han, who started and set the course of my anthropological field— work; to Professor Harold Garfinkel, who gave me the model and spirit of exhaustive inquiry; to Professor Robert Edger— ton, who criticized my work from its beginning; to Professors William Bright and Pedro Carrasco for their criticism and encouragement; and to Professor Lawrence Watson for his invaluable help in the clarification of my analysis. Finally, I am grateful to Mrs. Grace Stimson and Mr. F. A. Guilford for their assistance in preparing the manuscript.