Towards an indigenous critique of anthropological reason

Abstract

I deal here with a possible path within the anthropological universe, starting from classic ethnography, going through political activism, and reaching what we may call a post-activist reflection. With the arrival on the scene of indigenous intellectuals, some century-old anthropological practices are being challenged. We can hope that the presence of indigenous scholars will provoke the rise of an oecumenical anthropology, which could renew the discipline and rescue it from its current state of lethargy. The paper raises expectations about a critical “conversation” between indigenous and non-indigenous anthropologists by posing questions, looking for answers, which, in turn, would raise further questions, and so on in a dialectical spiral where indigenous and non-indigenous viewpoints inevitably clash, hopefully generating sufficient intellectual energy to provoke meaningful changes in the field.