The text critically examines the achievements and research directives of activist anthropology, mainly George Marcus’ and Luke Lassiter’s proposals. The
author demonstrates that anthropological projects that base on the “participation”
do not rely on the epistemological rupture, that is fundamental to the freedom
of scientifi c thinking, the freedom that can lead sometimes to production
of knowledge that is contrary to common sense, while participatory projects
leads rather toward confi rmation of the common sense. The article shows that
the researcher who is negotiating the content of his knowledge, which is to
be a representation of informant’s knowledge, with the informant, becomes
a hostage of the unwritten agreement, which he imposed by himself, assuming
that what is good from the moral stand defi ned by a researcher, is also good for
informant, and is good at all.
affiliation:
Wydział Historyczny : Instytut Etnologii i Antropologii Kulturowej