Based on Gregory Bateson´s famous metalogue format, this article is a conversation on how contemporary cultural creators question ethnographic authority from within their work of creating archives that contain the best of their peoples´ traditions, within an atmosphere saturated by television signals and digital messages, such as that which surrounded the temporary exhibition called Wakes and Living Saints among Black, Afro-Colombian, Maroon and Caribbean Islanders Communities. Such a display of transcendental symbols is problematic due to its capacity to either sublimate or trivialize them.