Anthropology
Anthropology is traditionally distinguished from other disciplines by its emphasis on cultural relativity, in-depth examination of context, and cross-cultural comparisons.
One useful online resource, germane to some aspects of current discussions on anthropology and counterinsurgency, following from the previous post, is:
Jorgensen, Joseph G., and Wolf, Eric R. (1970). Anthropology on the warpath in Thailand (a special supplement). The New York Review of Books, 15 (9), November 19.
http://www.nybooks.com/articles/10763
In that article, which provoked lengthy and critical responses, the two authors reflect on the significance, back then, of what they learned...
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“How was the field?”
“Are you going to the field?”
“I just got back from the field.”
“I’ll be away, in the field.”
One of the striking features of MIT’s Doing Anthropology video (see the video sidebar), an attempt to market and pitch anthropology, is that it actually looks and sounds an awful lot like sociology, except for one thing: its insistence on only one particular methodology, one with the very peculiar name of “fieldwork.” Otherwise, the content of the research projects is far...
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Anthropology finally gets some much needed public recognition, even admiration and praise…but wait, what’s this?
An assortment of some of the English-speaking world’s most prominent newspapers recently described ANTHROPOLOGY in the following terms — no this is not a joke:
“Anthropology is very funny and very sharp” (The Times)
“Despite being written from a male perspective, it will entertain any woman who can laugh at her own...
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Eros and thanatos, meeting, in such a loving, lustful embrace. This post will appear to contain echoes of that earlier post, on the romance of anthropology and how to get public attention. It will give the notion of a “surge” a whole new twist, or perhaps I should say rinse.
The newest revelations of the private side of “military anthropology” tend to reconfirm what a number of us have been thinking about those who would prostitute knowledge in return for recognition and rewards from the...
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Professor Sigismund Goodfellow, a gentleman anthropologist whom we have already encountered, telephoned me last night and asked, “If you would be so good as to escort a new graduate student entering the field. She is Daniela Rubin, and she arrived from Goldsmiths just last week. I am afraid I am too much, shall we say, ‘under the weather,’ to be of any use. Introduce her to your informants, as she is particularly interested in,” he hiccups, “ethnobotany and shamanism.”
•••••••
I meet...
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