The Predicament of Culture is a critical ethnography of the West in its changing relations with other societies. Analyzing cultural practices such as anthropology, travel writing, collecting, and museum displays of tribal art, Clifford shows authoritative accounts of other ways of life to be contingent fictions, now actively contested in postcolonial contexts. His critique raises questions of global significance: Who has the authority to speak for any group's identity and authenticity? What are the essential elements and boundaries of a culture? How do self and "the other" clash in the encounters of ethnography, travel, and modern interethnic relations? In discussions of ethnography, surrealism, museums, and emergent tribal arts, Clifford probes the late-twentieth century predicament of living simultaneously within, between, and after culture.

Introduction: The Pure Products Go Crazy 1 (19)
 Part One: Discourses 19 (96)
 On Ethnographic Authority 21 (34)
 Power and Dialogue in Ethnography: Marcel 55 (37)
 Griaule's Initiation
 On Ethnographic Self-Fashioning: Conrad and 92 (23)
 Malinowski
 Part Two: Displacements 115(72)
 On Ethnographic Surrealism 117(35)
 A Poetics of Displacement: Victor Segalen 152(13)
 Tell about Your Trip: Michel Leiris 165(10)
 A Politics of Neologism: Aime Cesaire 175(7)
 The Jardin des Plantes: Postcards 182(5)
 Part Three: Collections 187(66)
 Histories of the Tribal and the Modern 189(26)
 On Collecting Art and Culture 215(38)
 Part Four: Histories 253(96)
 On Orientalism 255(22)
 Identity in Mashpee 277(72)
 References 349(22)
 Sources 371(2)
 Index 373