Anthropology without any further ado: Methodological reflections on the adjectivation of the anthropological discipline

Abstract

In multiple anthropological investigations carried out in Argentina, there is a proliferation of adjectives that support the words anthropology and ethnography. “Committed, collaborative, militant”, amongst other labels, are some of the terms used in the titles of the investigations, delimiting the scope of the research or making its interests explicit. In the crossfire between colleagues that ponder the adjectivation of ethnography and anthropological work, and the ones who point out the consolidation of disciplinary mandates that have settled a common sense in national anthropology associated with the need for a prophetic commitment. I propose to recall my fieldwork experience in Valle Fértil, the northeast of San Juan, with baqueanos in a mountain context, to discuss the methodological scope of proposals that insist on adjectivizing the anthropological work.