Rosaldo, Renato. Culture & Truth: The Remaking of Social Analysis. Boston: Beacon Press, 1989.
Renato argues that a “sea change in cultural studies has eroded once-dominant conceptions of truth and objectivity.” What was once truth and objectivism reveals itself as more akin to imperialistic and/or colonialistic, imposing European assumptions upon other (read non-European) cultures. “Such terms as objectivity, neutrality, and impartiality refer to subject positions once endowed with great institutional authority, but they are arguably neither more nor less valid than those of more engaged, yet equally perceptive, knowledgeable social actors.” (21) Renato reports a change in methodological practices among the ethnographic and anthropologic disciplines, which he finds encouraging and necessary. [L. McReynolds]