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The article is concerned with the benefits of an empathetic position in the ethnographic approach. Starting from a case in which the researcher found the object of study “abhorrent ”, the article attempts to show that in situations in which the logic of indigenous behaviours seems opaque, empathy enables a private understanding of the emotions at work in the field. To be tenable, however, such a position requires a rare combination of proximity and distance in relation to the object; this can be turned to the researcher’s advantage more easily in exotic fields than in fields close to home.