| They Lie, We Lie: Getting on with Anthropology Contributor(s): Metcalf, Peter (Author) |
|
 |
ISBN: 0415262607 ISBN-13: 9780415262606 Publisher: Routledge OUR PRICE: $52.20 Product Type: Paperback - Other Formats Published: October 2001 Annotation: In "They Lie, We Lie," Peter Metcalf gives an engaging account of his fieldwork in Borneo, telling the story of his tortuous relationship with Kasi, a formidable old lady who, for twenty years, tried to strictly control what he learned about her community. The author examines the puzzles and contradictions of life in the field drawing out what such personal predicaments have to say about anthropology in a post-colonial world. The result is an account that is accessible to those unfamiliar with the contemporary critiques of anthropology, and useful to those who are only too familiar with them. |
| Additional Information |
| BISAC Categories: - Social Science | Anthropology - Cultural & Social |
| Dewey: 305.807 |
| LCCN: 2001044217 |
| Physical Information: 0.34" H x 5.62" W x 8.68" (0.53 lbs) 168 pages |
| Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
| Publisher Description: They Lie, We Lie is an attempt by an experienced fieldworker to engage recent critiques in ethnography, that is the writing of culture, made both from within anthropology and from such disciplines as cultural studies and post-colonial theory. This is necessary because there has been a polarization within anthropology between those who react dismissively to what Marshall Sahlins calls 'afterology' and those who find the critiques so crippling as to make it hard to get on with anthropology at all. Metcalf bridges this divide by analyzing the contradictions of fieldwork in connection with a particular 'informant', a formidable old lady who tried for twenty years to control what he would and would not learn. At each stage, the author draws out the general implications of his predicament by making comparisions to the most famous of all fieldwork relationships, that between Victor Turner and Muchona. |