This essay starts out from the notion that an indispensable condition for communication is that the sender and receiver (a) accept they are similar, and (b) share a context of similarity. This similarity sets the parameters for the message’s evaluation. Thus similarity is a condition of verisimilitude. Inspired by Donald Davidson’s work, the text makes use of his above ideas as a means of approaching some of the cultural implications of both the phenomenon of translation (seen in the light of the Quinean concept of ‘indeterminacy’) and the practice of ethnography. As an example, the essay turns to Duarte Barbosa’s 16th century proto-ethnography, made famous by his description of the Nayar.
Narrative; Ethnography; Davidson; Translation