The anthropologists representation of the people they ‘study’ as well as the theoretical deconstruction of essentialised identities, whether “resistive” or “oppressive”, will affect their research subjects access to economic, political and symbolical resources in positive or negative ways.
In my paper I will approach the anthropologists ethical and political dilemma if and how to reveal the constructive “truth” about identity and its connection with power from an empirical perspective. This is based on my fieldwork among the Orang Rimba (also known as “Kubu”) in Central Sumatra and their struggle for an independent life as semi-nomadic forest dwellers. I will show in which way different ascriptions and identifications affect the Orang Rimba’s ethnic identity in relation to their political agency. At the same time I will discuss that the anthropologists representation of their subjects might be as marginalized as the subjects of research themselves. Furthermore I will address the “ethnographic subjects’ ” perception of the anthropologist with regard to strategic self representation to make the anthropologist “see us as we want to be seen”.