ABSTRACT
The present boom of fundamental self-scrutiny focuses on the two main stages of anthropological knowledge production: fieldwork and writing. The epistemological foundation of anthropological knowledge is the public character of cultures. The anthropologist’s audience faces some more difficulties in appraising the plausibility of anthropological knowledge. The extent to which the anthropological text meets the expectations of the audience about other sociocultural systems is also important in this respect. An important advantage which this element of reflexivity is presumed to have is that it adds to the understanding of the total process of anthropological knowledge production. Reflection on anthropological writing rightly underlies the importance of presentation for the credibility of the “data” of anthropological research. The danger of this form of reflexivity, however, is that it may create the impression that the impact of anthropological texts on the reader is only a product of their presentation.
