oa De antropoloog als nar?Een eerdere versie van dit essay werd als lezing uitgesproken op het symposium ‘Antropologie en humor’, 30 oktober 2016, Radboud Universiteit Nijmegen. De auteur dankt dr. Jens Andersson, prof. dr. Henk Driessen en dr. Geert de Vries voor commentaren en suggesties.

Anthropologists adhere to the ideal of blending in their fieldwork environment, denoted as ‘glass presence’ or becoming a ‘nobody’. Yet, in reality they stand markedly out from their informants. Anthropologists more often than not elicit laughter and humorous joking, to make familiar what is strange. The essay argues that this resembles the role of the court jester, and it advocates making our students more aware of it as part of their reflexive training.