ABSTRACT
The withdrawal of anthropology from general intellectual discourse in the latter half of the twentieth century is a fact which needs no further qualification. The last decades of the twentieth century saw a fundamental transformation of—in descending order of importance—the universities, the role of the academic intellectual in society, and anthropology. Universities are being turned into factories. Academics have, as a consequence, lost much of the time they could formerly devote to engagement in greater society, they have been specialized to the point of fragmentation and besides, their societal authority has diminished. Perhaps non-engagement or aloofness from social issues is the main residue of the old cultural relativism, that is the spirit of letting the natives deal with native problems? There are many possible interpretations. Yet anthropology is particularly relevant in the contemporary world, as a way of thinking comparatively, based on a local perspective on human affairs.
