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As specialists in matters that have to do with other cultures, anthropolo gists are committed to the general task of translating so-called ‘native’Otherness for allegedly ‘cosmopolitan’audiences. They are, in Clifford Geertz’s (1984: 275) resonant phrase,‘merchants of astonishment’, though it is their task to perform this role, as far as possible, without prejudice, derision or (over-) sensationalism. What they often discover, though, is that the people they study have themselves devoted time and energy in crafting their own representations of Others. Often, these representations can appear ungrounded in any kind of direct experience, and can magnify particular elements, while overlooking other elements to stereotype their targets and cast them in a negative light. This represents a particular chal lenge for anthropologists committed to the disciplinary principle of cultural relativism. Scholars of ethnicity have addressed the …