Unlike physical scientists, who seek utterances that can be absolute and value-free, humanists seek meaning in the double context of event and interpretation. The perceived validity of folkloric or ethnographic interpretation is determined not by raw data so much as the verisimilitude and efficacy of the interpretive object. The folklorist or ethnographer, therefore, is at once subject to two not necessarily compatible demands: the requirement of scientific accuracy and the need for artistic cogency. The question of authenticity remains external.