They Lie, We Lie

They Lie, We Lie is an attempt by an experienced fieldworker to engage recent critiques in ethnography made both from within anthropology and from such disciplines as cultural studies and post-colonial theory. This is nexessary 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. Metcalfe bridges this divide by analysing 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 comparisons to the most famous of all fieldwork relationships, that between Victor Turner and Muchona. The result is an account that is accessible to those unfamiliar with the current critiques of ethnography, and helpful to those who are only too familiar with them. His discussion shows, not how to evade the critiques, but how in fact anthropologists have coped with the existential dilemmas of fieldwork.

ISBN 0415262607   Pages 168 ISBN13 9780415262606 (What's this?)   Volumes 1 Publisher Taylor & Francis Ltd   Weight (grammes) 249 Imprint Routledge   Published in London Format Paperback   Height (mm) 150 Publication date 25 Oct 2001   Width (mm) 230 Library of Congress 2001044217   Spine width (mm) 9 DEWEY 301.0723   Academic level Undergraduate, Postgraduate, Professional / Scholarly DEWEY edition DC21

		List of illustrations
1		Lies		1
		"Something spoken which is not true"		2
		They lie, we lie		5
		Getting on with anthropology		9
2		Struggle		17
		Learning experiences		17
		Kasi's preemptive strike		23
		The polite fictions of research proposals		29
		Kasi throws up her defenses		32
		The siege		35
		My fifth column		39
3		Power		43
		Hearts and minds		44
		Colonial involvements		51
		Going into the villages		55
		People invisible to the state		69
4		Ethnicity		77
		Lelakness		78
		The vanishing point		83
		Foregrounding the Berawan		92
		Lost tribes		97
		The true Berawan		99
		Keeping things in perspective		104
5		Closure		109
		"Lelak"		109
		Throwing away the old way		112
		Kasi's vanishing		115
		Cultural obituaries		117
		Indignities		120
		Demolishing "Upriver"		125
		Constructing "Upriver People"		127
		More...