ABSTRACT
In the pr ivileged perspective of relig ious studies at Northwestern and Princeton, both theology and anthropology look surprisingly alike. But perhaps it is not so surprising since both have been engaged in something of the same kind of quest, the quest to know the Other. The New Testament scholars have centred their work on Jesus, the Divine Other, a human with something plus. The anthropologists have centred their whole work on the Savage, the Primitive, the Native, call him what you will, the Other, a human with something minus. My long-term reasons for compar ing anthropology with nineteenth-century German New Testament studies have to do with my sense of the importance of anthropology and of its intellectual responsibility. The immediate choice is inspired by my conflicting emotions on returning to Zaire, emotions of admiration mixed with sorrow and concern.
