Euphemism, Banality, Propaganda: Anthropology, Public Debate and Indigenous Communities

Abstract

Initially this article was a response to an essay by Peter Sutton which was widely distributed and referenced as an authoritative anthropological analysis of current conditions in Indigenous communities. The apparently general assent to Sutton's arguments led me to mount a wider critical analysis of the essay's scholarly, ethnographic and theoretical weaknesses. I emphasise that the meanings generated within communities must be attended to, and that public debate and policy formulation should not be confused. While scholarship cannot be divorced from either policy or the public, anthropologists should be wary of participating in debates that cannot 'solve' any 'problem' outside of their own articulation.

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