The Anthropologist as Ensemble Member: Anthropological Experiments with Theatre Makers

Abstract

What do anthropologists make? One conventional response to this question would be text. Equally, however, anthropologists also construct narratives and images (Herzfeld 2007: 107). Another response, more in vogue, is that anthropologists produce anthropological knowledge. Much attention has been given to the production of such knowledge, specifically during fieldwork. Coleman and Collins, for instance, suggest (2006: 12) ‘performing the field’ as a concept that liberates fieldwork from bounded spatial assumptions. Marcus (2009: 525) proposes to replace ‘rapport’ with ‘theatres of complicit reflexivity’ as a more equitable trope for fieldwork. Nevertheless, the form that anthropological knowledge takes for the purposes of evaluation remains firmly rooted in text: dissertations, books, and articles. Even conference presentations are mostly ‘read’, rather than performed. These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.

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