In the past decades, many studies have focused on various kinds of elites in a complex society, as well as on processes of governance and state administration. This acumen has expanded the repertoire of social meanings in both politics and state processes. However, regarding the corresponding ethnographic information, much has yet to be done. Several articles show how difficult it is to study prestigious institutions and propose alternative research strategies, but very few address the impact such discomfort has on ethnography as a means of knowledge production, over and above participant observation. This paper attempts to link the very challenge of researching powerful individuals to the difficulty of personally dealing with them and writing about them and their hidden agendas. It focuses on the Brazilian Congress and on recent events in Brazilian politics, including the impeachment of President Dilma Rousseff. It offers some possibilities for studying politics by taking seriously the ethnographic motto “from the native’s point of view.” Is this possible when the researcher has moral objections toward the “native”? How is one to do ethnographic work with people like politicians, who usually hold secrets and tell lies? What sort of knowledge and truth can we draw from such a “dialogue”?

中文翻译：

---

巴西国会的谎言、秘密和真相笔记

在过去的几十年里，许多研究集中在复杂社会中的各种精英，以及治理和国家行政的过程。这种敏锐性扩展了政治和国家进程中的社会意义。然而，关于相应的民族志信息，还有很多工作要做。几篇文章展示了研究著名机构和提出替代研究策略是多么困难，但很少有人讨论这种不适对作为知识生产手段的人种学的影响，而不是参与者观察。本文试图将研究有权势的人的挑战与亲自与他们打交道并撰写有关他们及其隐藏议程的困难联系起来。它关注巴西国会和巴西政治中的近期事件，包括弹劾迪尔玛·罗塞夫总统。它通过认真对待“从当地人的角度”的人种学座右铭，为研究政治提供了一些可能性。当研究人员对“本地人”有道德上的反对时，这可能吗？如何与像政治家这样通常保守秘密并说谎的人一起做民族志工作？我们可以从这样的“对话”中得到什么样的知识和真理？谁通常会保守秘密并说谎？我们可以从这样的“对话”中得到什么样的知识和真理？谁通常会保守秘密并说谎？我们可以从这样的“对话”中得到什么样的知识和真理？