How Native Is a “Native” Anthropologist?

How “native�? is a native anthropologist? How “foreign�? is an anthropologist from abroad? The paradigm polarizing “regular�? and “native�? anthropologists is, after all, part of received disciplinary wisdom. Those who are anthropologists in the usual sense of the word are thought to study Others whose alien cultural worlds they must painstakingly come to know. Those who diverge as “native,�? “indige- nous,�? or “insider�? anthropologists are believed to write about their own cultures from a position of intimate affinity. Certainly, there have been scattered voices cri- tiquing this dichotomy. Arguing that because a culture is not homogeneous, a soci- ety is differentiated, and a professional identity that involves problematizing lived reality inevitably creates a distance, scholars such as Aguilar (1981) and Messerschmidt (1981a:9) conclude that the extent to which anyone is an authentic insider is questionable. Yet such critiques have not yet been adequately integrated into the way “native�? anthropologists are popularly viewed in the profession.