The “ethnological act” has a certain inherent crudeness about it : there is the imbalance of roles and statuses, the intrusiveness of the analytical setting, the gap between the investigator’s aims and the interviewees’ expectations, as well as the voyeurism and paternalism that, at times, are hidden behind the one-size-fits-all formula of the “empathetic approach”. Researchers are well aware that, in one way or another, they will betray their informants. But the extent of this natural propensity for betrayal varies according to discipline. It is still very much in evidence for “objectivist” anthropologists, whereas it appears to be dying out in the field of ethnomethodology and interpretative anthropology—a decline of still unknown consequences.