The Native’s Gaze: Or, Notes on Anthropology in and of the Homeland
Over the past few decades, anthropology has not only ramified considerably (giving and taking from other disciplines—in terms of theory, methods, research questions—and creating a straggle of subdisciplines and subfields) but an increasing number of ‘native’ anthropologists, trained in and with research focus on places that were erstwhile constructed as the exotic ‘other’, have been emerging and challenging previous stereotypes of the le savage and grand narratives while also training their analytical gaze on new trends in our global society. This talk reviews the work of one emergent ‘native’ anthropologist whose range of interests appear to mirror the disciplinary promiscuity that has come to define the anthropological enterprise. The talk informs that political purpose—framed in the often unstated language of power relations—is the artefact of this anthropologist’s ideas and praxis.
Dr Yogi Ogunsanya,
Independent Scholar