How to be a good guest: American ethnographers in Turkey in the long 1968

Abstract

The article uncovers a forgotten chapter in the history of anthropology by revealing the experiences of American ethnographers in Turkey between 1967 and 1969. Using original archival documents and oral history interviews, it focuses on the trials of Professor Lloyd A. Fallers as well as doctoral students Michael Meeker, Peter Benedict, and June Starr in navigating Turkish bureaucracy and global politics. Conceptually, the article evaluates the case of anthropologists in Cold War Turkey from the perspective of hospitality studies with a particular focus on guest-to-guest relationships. Adopting the guests’ points of view shows us that hospitality assemblages are forged by other-oriented thinking and behaviour, which involves misunderstandings, empathy, and projection. The article conceives the hospitality relationship as an encounter among perceptions of hospitality.