Deep cultural knowledge can free a traveler from his origins.

Evidence

Burton’s freedom was in having shaken himself loose of his European origins enough to be able to live as an Oriental. Every scene in the Pilgrimage reveals him as winning out over the obstacles confronting him, a foreigner, in a strange place. He was able to do this because he had sufficient knowledge of an alien society for this purpose. — Edward W. Said, Orientalism, 498

Categorization

• QUESTION: Does Said ultimately read Burton’s ‘becoming Oriental’ as genuine emancipation or as a deeper ruse of colonial mastery? Worth checking how this freedom claim sits with the overall thesis that Orientalism always remains an instrument of domination.
• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — Edward W. Said, Orientalism, 498