Expression & “El etnógrafo”

Frances Densmore with Blackfoot chief, Mountain Chief, during a 1916 phonograph recording session for the Bureau of American Ethnology

According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary online, the definition of the word ethnography is “the study and systematic recording of human cultures; also : a descriptive work produced from such research.” In this way, the calling of “el etnógrafo,” Fred Murdock, in Jorge Luis Borges’s story is two-fold: to study and to record. Murdock completes his study of the indigenous tribes, but struggles with the “systematic recording” aspect of his research; he refuses to express “el secreto” that he discovers in writing or seemingly in any other way. 

When Murdock is first described, there are key traits which predispose him towards this choice. Borges describes him as a young man, “de muy pocas palabras,” also mentioning how, “naturalmente respetuoso, no descreía de los libros ni de quienes escriben los libros.” In this way, Borges describes Murdock’s relationship with words, writing, and writers. The choice here to use the word “naturalmente” in describing Murdock’s respectfulness seems to be sarcastic or ironic in some way. In Murdock’s choice to reject writing later in the story, the naturalness of this respect is undermined and called into question. This subtle undermining is very much in the style of Borges; in the story “El Sur” he manipulates the word “hondamente” in a similar way. In the case of “naturalmente”, Borges seeks to question the blind respect and faith that people place in writers and the written word. He examines the representational structure between (A) dreams, thought, secrets, and truth; and (B) saying, writing, and outwardly expressing. This structure is not as natural as it might appear, but the reason for this representational insufficiency is also not as simple as the common idiom, words cannot express. Murdock tells his professor: “en esas lejanías aprendí algo que no puedo decir.” And when his professor questions, “¿Acaso el idioma inglés es insuficiente?” Murdock replies, “Nada de eso, señor. Ahora que poseo el secreto, podría enunciarlo de cien modos distintos y aun contradictorios. No sé muy bien cómo decirle que el secreto es precioso y que ahora la ciencia, nuestra ciencia, me parece una mera frivolidad.” It is unclear here what “ciencia” Murdock is describing. He could be speaking about ethnography or science in the general sense—he could even be talking about the science of writing and language. The question that arises is: what is this secret? Why does it render “ciencia” frivolous? How is it possible that any truth could do this? Or is it possible that every real truth does this? How do the “caminos” that Murdock took to arrive at these truths related to this equation?