Dreams as ethnographic tools

Abstract

This article defends the idea that dreams experienced by ethnographers and their interloc- utors can be used as a tool to access knowledge and ideas about the reality studied. To prove this, the author offers a number of specific ethnographic cases in which dreams are involved in the processes of communication, learning and understanding the questions raised by each anthropological approach. At the same time facts of the author’s own research among Mui- na and Muinana indigenous peoples from the Colombian Amazon are presented. The au- thor’s own dreams and some indigenous’ dreams opened discussion routes and uncovered concepts and discourses which were helpful in understanding reality and action upon it. Finally, the author discusses how some life experiences in the research process, like dreams in this case, constitute a relevant contribution to the debates on contemporary challenges of the ethnographic work.