Don Quixote’s choice: A manifesto for a romanticist anthropology

Abstract

In this article we propose to engage anthropology as a romanticist discipline. Revisiting particular histories, we depict the anthropological discipline and its core method (ethnography) as imbued with sensibilities and militancies that define it as a "romantic subversion," an against-the-grain attitude against intellectual hegemonies and conformisms. We do so by focusing on three points: the charting of a romanticist conceptual agenda in anthropology; the analysis of ethnographic intersubjectivity and personal transformation as romantic heroisms; and the discussion of a counterhegemonic militant anthropology. We speculate about an anthropological ethos that is inherently subversive and "quixotic," following the inspiration of Miguel de Cervantes' classic novel.