Pesquisando no perigo: Etnografias voluntárias e não acidentais

The article discusses the question of cultural relativism, an issue that has become increasingly polemical at the turn of the millennium, especially with the diverging opinions on how to respond to the dilemmas posed by the new subjects-objects and the impasses generated by the global diffusion of universalist stances. New ethical problems and dilemmas prevene anthropological practice: what are human rights and what are their reach among non-western natives; who counts as a human person and who should be heard in the societies under study; and how to deal with the oppression of people within the 'native societies' when the oppressors are themselves natives? In the ethnography of crime, is it possible or necessary to submerge oneself in the world of the other to the point of turning native? The anthropology of the con-temporary, practiced in increasingly differentiated societies and in an ever more globalized world, demands a multitude of data sources, approaches and theoretical perspectives, verifying what is happening in other disciplines, and remaining cautious and patient in the invention of our concepts and new research.