We can at least say something (not of course that we always do) with some concreteness to it. I have never been able to understand why such comments as “your conclusions, such as they are, only cover two million people [Bali], or fifteen million [Morocco], or sixty-five million [Java], and only over some years or centuries,” are supposed to be criticisms. Of course, one can be wrong, and probably, as often as not, one is. But “just” or “merely” trying to figure our Japan, China, Zaire, or the Central Eskimo (or better, some aspect of their life along some chunk of their world line) is not chopped liver, even if it looks less impressive than explanations, theories, or whatnot which have as their object “History,” “Society,” “Man,” “Woman,” or some other grand and elusive upper-case entity.

Available Light (2000), 137-138.

PS Variations on a Theme in Anthropology