This article analyses the ideas of Malinowski and Paulo Freire proposing some proximities between anthropology and pedagogy. Among the possibilities resulting from such a meeting, one certainly deserves special attention: the recommendation that anthropologists and teachers should always respect the community knowledge previously acquired by students and "natives" as the real starting point for the construction of science. In this way, it is possible to consider that in both disciplines knowledge be associated with a respect for alterity, a lesson they must share not only with other disciplines, but especially with the wider community.
education; anthropology; knowledge; alterity