They Lie, We Lie: Getting on with Anthropology

InThey Lie, We Lie, Peter Metcalf gives an engaging account of his fieldwork in Borneo, telling the story of his tortuous relationship with Kasi, a formidable old lady who, for twenty years, tried to strictly control what he learned about her community. The author examines the puzzles and contradictions of life in the field drawing out what such personal predicaments have to say about anthropology in a post-colonial world. The result is an account that is accessible to those unfamiliar with the contemporary critiques of anthropology, and useful to those who are only too familiar with them.