ABSTRACT
This chapter reviews the most common anthropological approaches to the Natives, not according to theories or references, but by discussing opposed possibilities: of taking the Natives seriously or of suspecting or denouncing them. It considers the possibility of taking the Native seriously, in order to ask which Natives can be described according to this approach, and which cannot be taken seriously. The chapter argues that the Native who falls into the category of the repugnant other, who has a different political or moral stance from the anthropologist, cannot be described through this approach. It also argues that many anthropologists undertake description only when there is a similarity between the anthropologist's political and moral stance and that of the Native being described, and that this sympathy between researcher and Native is occluded by the rhetoric of taking the Native seriously. The chapter discusses three similarities between anthropological stream and important aspects of neoliberal rhetoric.
