Introduction

Anthropology and Consultancy—Ethnographic Dilemmas and Opportunities

Bibliographic Data

ID20068141
AuthorsAndrew Strathern, Pamela J Stewart (0000-0003-3438-6469)
Year2004
Pages1-24
Publication date2004-12-31
Open AccessNo
TypeCHAPTER
VenueAnthropology and Consultancy (SOURCE_BOOK)
PublisherBerghahn Books (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1515/9781782381754-002
OpenAlexW2551560136
ISBN9781782381754
LanguageEN
Citations received1
References cited12

The papers that we have collected here as the editors of this Special Issue of Social Analysis speak to many of the dilemmas inherent in anthropological practice today, as well as to the philosophical roots of anthropology itself. What is our position as anthro pologists in the worlds that we study, be it those we are indigenous members of or those to which we are outsiders? Do we see ourselves as relatively detached observers or as persons committed to some program of action in relation to the people we study, and how is our study altered by our involvement? Clearly, we do not need to see these alternatives in absolute terms. Each anthropologist may choose a nuanced position along the con tinuum from detachment to involvement, or may move from one position to another depending on changing circumstances or projects over time. The idea of participant obser vation which has been central to anthropological fieldwork, itself implies a combination of these two opposites of detachment and involvement, which fieldworkers have to balance out for themselves. Fieldworkers must be able to offer something of value to those with whom they work, and the needs or demands of their subjects do not necessarily equate or mesh with what the anthropologist is able to offer or feels is appropriate. As more and more trained anthropologists are studying their own cultures it becomes sometimes diffi cult to balance the placement of the anthropologist in the community that she/he is studying and to negotiate and disentangle work situations from those involving close kin and/or friends. These considerations show that many of the dilemmas which anthropolo gists particularly face in carrying out consultancy work are, in fact, implicitly faced by all anthropologists, whatever the sponsorship, constraints or requirements of their study. One main concern is how to recurrently deal with such basic questions as the management of reciprocity in historical contexts influenced by differential distributions of social power. Consultancy work is the contemporary transformation of applied anthropology and inherits some of the particular problems linked to this branch of the discipline. Two quite different problems are frequently found here. One is the opposition that is sometimes made, on the basis of models from other disciplines, between 'applied' and 'theoretical' studies. The latter are accorded higher prestige. This opposition, however, is somewhat misconceived. If applied work is to be sound, it must incorporate adequate theory to guide its own analyses; and if theoretical work is to be valid, it has to be applicable to 'real world' situations about which it theorizes. The second problem has to do with history. 'Applied' anthropology, as a category term, is sometimes associated with European colonialism and regarded as having arisen as an instrument of imperial domination, a 'science of colonialism'. The debates on this topic are well-worn. Here we may say that this view of anthropological work greatly oversimplified the relationship between particular anthropologists and the controlling powers in the areas in which they worked 3

Epistemology · Ethnography · Indigenous · Negotiation · Social science · Sociology · Anthropological Studies and Insights · Anthropology · Indigenous Studies and Ecology · Psychology · Southeast Asian Sociopolitical Studies

Tools

Open DOI