Two key aspects of social and cultural anthropology are comparison and refl
exivity. For a genuinely empirical anthropology, these must be mutually eng
aged. In exploring various kinds of comparison from formal intercommunal an
alyses to comparisons between nation-states, between anthropology and its c
ultural objects, and between anthropological and other kinds of writing-the
anthropologist's personal trajectory is critically influential on choices
made and paths taken. In contemplating my earliest work in Greece, my decis
ion to compare forms of identity in Greece and Italy, and a recent move to
the geographically broader framework offered by including Thailand, I have
also had to consider the role of differently situated anthropologists (e.g.
, local as opposed to,foreign), points in career trajectory and developing
linguistic competences, and shifting epistemological contexts. As a result,
over time, I have found the linkage between comparison and reflexivity inc
reasingly central to the empirical understanding of social and cultural phe
nomena.