REVERSING THE GAZE: “THE WHITEMAN” AS OTHER
Sam Pack

Abstract:
The tradition of anthropology is rooted in an effort to make sense of the “other.” In fact, the Western concept of the primitive is what makes anthropology intellectually possible. Anthropological literature literally abounds with “our” interpretations of “them.” For all its intentions of neutrality and objectivity, the anthropological gaze has generally traveled in only one direction. Rarely did researchers stop to consider that the objects of the gaze also have a tradition with which to make sense of their “others.” Perhaps my most radical contention in this
article is also the most basic: they do to us what we do to them. The key difference, of course, is that perceptions of whites by Indians are not widely expressed, overt, and systematized but suppressed, covert, and internalized.

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