Ronald Stade: The politics of perspectives: some notes on methodological cosmopolitanism in anthropology
Whose perspectives are represented in ethnographic writing? What are the political consequences of including certain perspectives and not others? Which perspectives do anthropologists themselves employ in trying to make sense of something and to someone? These (and related) questions connect the issues of politics and methodology with one another. They also point toward problems of classification, identity and power. Can anthropology, for example, do without the idioms of social, cultural and historical difference? Is there an alternative to turning human beings into objects of knowledge (and even cultural species) in ethnographic writing? The presentation will focus on these issues and in outlining methodological cosmopolitanism offer a possible answer to the questions raised.