Anthropologists are at it again: engaged in fruitless and unproductive arguments about whether the discipline is a “science.” The furor revolves around proposed changes to the American Anthropological Association’s mission statement:
The purposes of the Association shall be to advance anthropology as the science that studies public understanding of humankind in all its aspects, through This [...]
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Over at Slate, Jeremy Stahl has written a fabulous piece — Inside the Bizarre Tourist Trade at Harlem’s Sunday Church Services — that will greatly interest cultural anthropologists. The article hits on several hot button concepts for culturals — tourism, commoditization, race, authenticity, tradition, identity, ritual, gazing, etc. Sensing these issues, Stahl is reluctant:
Though I [...]
Tags:authenticity·commoditization·cultural anthropology·Daniel Bell·drama·Frederic Jameson·Harlem churches·Harlem worship services·Jeremy Stahl·postmodernism·race·religion as commodity·spectacle·The Cultural Contradictions of Capitalism·The Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism·theater·tourism·tourist trade
The Guardian has posted an encouraging story about studying anthropology and what people do with anthropology degrees.
Assuming that one is truly dedicated to four-field anthropology, the following certainly rings of truth: “Anthropology has been described as the most scientific of the humanities and the most humanistic of the sciences.”
Unfortunately for most anthropology graduate students, the [...]
Tags:anthropology degree·archaeology·biological anthropology·cultural anthropology·four field anthropology·holistic anthropology·humanities·linguistics·science
