Communicating the Intangible: An Anishnaabeg Story

A contemporary Anishnabe story exemplifies the ethnohermeneutical approach to intercultural communication. In this case, rather than present Native ideas within a Western scholarly genre, the story's form as well as its content arise out of Anishnabe ways of understanding. The author of the story is conversant with both Anishnabe and Western cultures, and thus was able to present basic Anishnabe concepts to Western readers. The Western ethnohermeneutical approach based on interviewing informants can also be valid if the scholar allows members of the subject culture to impart the material in their own way.