1. presented at the Center for Society, Technology, and Development (STANDD) seminar series. 3 November, McGiIl University. The material for this article was collected as pan of my dissertation research, the fieldwork for which was supported by grants From the Research Support Scheme of the Open Society Support Foundation (grant no. 98/1998), SHRC (1998-99) and FCAR (1998-99). The subsequent period of writing was funded by an Arthur Tagge Major fellowship, McGiIl University (1999-2000) and the Supplementary Global Giant Program of the Open Society University. I am gratefulto allthese institutions for their support. An earlier version of this essay was
2. Annual Convention of the Association for the Study of Nationalities. 5-7 April, New York: Columbia University. I am thankful for suggestions from audiences on these occasions, as well as to the following people, my advisors and colleagues, for useful comments on earlier drafts: Dominique Behague, John G. Galaty, Hashim lhab, Toby Morantz, Robert Myles, Svetlana Uduslivaya, and anonymous reviewers of the JMMA.narratives.