ANTHROPOLOGICAL EPISTEMOLOGIES

It has long been recognized that anthropology is distinctive among soc ial sciences disciplines for its grounding in ethnographic fieldwork. The significance of this basis has, however, changed in recent decades as anthropological texts are increasingly read and responded to by th e peoples studied. The expanded audience for anthropological writing m akes anthropological knowledge contentious in a novel way,and exposes contradictions in the notion that ethnographers ought to adopt a 'nati ve point of view', which has long been a cherished, if unexamined aspi ration. Together with shifts away from systemic totalizations and the dominance of linguistic models, this shift in the status of anthropolo gical knowledge creates new risks and promises for the discipline.