ABSTRACT
This chapter considers anthropology as broadly synonymous with ethnography a conflation admitted by Clifford Geertz as 'common to the point of being standard' despite its inexactness. One of the advantages of anthropology as a scholarly enterprise is that no one, including its practitioners, quite knows exactly what it is. Reflection on ethical pressures is something that anthropology can contribute to, having long studied the relationships on which fieldwork and translation. Geertz begins by stating that one of the central problems of anthropology over the whole course of its history has been to come to grips with the immense variety of human life and its manifestations. Considering translation in relation to anthropology, ethnography, and sociology has a long and established tradition. A similar network of claims, concessions, and expectations strongly connected to trust holds between the translators and those who rely on their work. The resulting concept of biocultural diversity is broadly affirmed as desirable and in need of preservation.
