Front and back cover caption, volume 23 issue 1Front coverA Dutch participant in the reality television series Groeten uit de rimboe, in which Dutch and Belgian families immerse themselves in the daily life of the world’s ‘most primitive tribes’. Some time afterwards, their hosts pay a return visit to experience life in Europe, screened on television in the sequel Groeten terug. The two series have been subject to heated debate in the Dutch media, having been both lauded as unpretentious entertainment and condemned as unethical ‘popular anthropology’.The attention of Myrna Eindhoven, Laurens Bakker and Gerard Persoon was first drawn to the series when a family was sent to Mentawai, where all three have done fieldwork. While they themselves are critical of the unashamed focus on entertainment, they became intrigued by the reactions of other anthropologists to the series.Here they connect this case from the Netherlands to the ongoing debate on ‘popular anthropology’ in ANTHROPOLOGY TODAY, triggered by the UK series Tribe. Dutch anthropologists have mostly dismissed the series as ‘not anthropology’, criticizing it as exploitative and as ethnocentric. But do anthropologists have the authority to define ‘popular anthropology’? How do we come to terms with blatant commercialization of our fieldwork sites, and their conversion into exotic locations for popular entertainment?Back coverNATION‐BUILDING IN EAST TIMOREast Timor celebrates its Independence Day on 20 May each year. The day forms the backdrop for the largest annual encounter between the political centre and the periphery. In this photo, an elder (katuas) member of Fretilin, the largest political party, blends traditional and modern at the Independence Day celebrations in the capital, Dili, in 2005.As an exemplar of the United Nations’ capacity for ‘nation‐building’, the Democratic Republic of Timor Leste (or ‘East Timor’ as it is more popularly known) developed into something of a ‘poster boy’ for the United Nations from the day it became a sovereign nation on 20 May 2002. But in April 2006, some months after the last remaining UN staff had left, violence in the streets of the capital began to undermine social and political stability, resulting in the overthrow of prime minister Mari Alkatiri.Under the more engaged leadership of his successor, José Ramos‐Horta, the threat of unrest has abated to some extent. Nevertheless, the country faces an array of serious problems – political, social and economic. In his article in this issue, David Hicks draws on his anthropological fieldwork to highlight the widening gap between the ‘centre’ and the ‘periphery’. Hicks argues that the former embodies the institutions and quasi‐Western values professed by the national leaders in Dili, while the latter centres around the traditional, largely indigenous values of the country's local communities, who comprise the overwhelming majority of the population.Although already latent before the United Nations left, this widening divergence in values is eroding the political integrity of the first nation‐state to become a member of the United Nations in the 21st century, and if it continues to grow, will call into question the ability of the United Nations to ‘manufacture’ nation‐states.Anthropology has an important role to play in highlighting and analysing the implications of grassroots discrepancies between local populations and political elites. More than this, it has a role to play in confronting the international community with the ethical and other consequences of its increasingly regular interventions in third countries.
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May 8, 2008
Frances L Rothstein 
Open Access