anthropology

hypothesis

Human Subject Research

Franz Boas

Marcel Mauss

Halloween Costume

Ruth Benedict

Margaret Mead

anthropologist

participant observation

misanthrope

misanthropy

archaeology

archaeologist

human

alien

is the science that treats of the various tribes of man, as robbers, thieves, swindlers, dunces, lunatics, idiots and ethnologist.

ETHNOLOGY, n. The science that treats of the various tribes of Man, as robbers, thieves, swindlers, dunces, lunatics, idiots and ethnologist.

is a canary discipline, in that our task is much like the canaries that miners take into the mines to sniff out deadly gases to show where the mines need to be vented or reworked.

canary discipline', as in 'the canaries that miners take into the mines to sniff out deadly gases, thereby showing where the mines need to be vented or reworked' (Fischer 2000).

is a discipline committed to developing theory, assessing the present, sustaining a kind of moral discourse, and being inventive and original to the extent that it has become very little accountable to the data that comes from fieldwork.

With its additional load ofdeveloping theory, assessing the present, sustaining a kind ofmoral discourse, being inventive and original, and so forth, anthropological ethnography, as text, has become very little accountable to the data that comes from fieldwork-thus the complaint heard these days, often from older anthropologist, that 'there is no ethnography in ethnography anymore.' But it seems to me that the untimeliness you speak of is partly in accord with such criticism. It seems not only to call for a rethinking of'being' in fieldwork but also objecting to the pretensions and excesses of what has been made of ethnography after Writing Culture. And it does so in the absence of the sort of disciplinary reception that would hold ethnography in simpler times (when topics were more settled) accountable for its data. Untimeliness is a powerful accountability for where ethnography sets itselfin real time, or outside it. It at least encourages a more rigorous setting ofethnography in relation to a particular set of relations or field of study. (marcus in marcus and rabinow 'designs' : 60) )

is a discipline grounded in the presumption that ours is not the only possible way to live, and that other ways have allowed and still allow groups of men to find happiness. Anthropology invites us to temper our pride, to respect other life styles.

Anthropologist are trying to point out that ours is not the only possible way to live, and that other ways have allowed and still allow groups of men to find happiness. Anthropology invites us to temper our pride, to respect other life styles and do as Rousseau did when faced with surprising, shocking or repulsive practices: he preferred to believe from recent descriptions that gorillas were men rather than risk refusing the attribute of humanity to what might have been only one more aspect of humanity previously unknown. (Levi-Strauss, C. and P. B. Kussell Interview. 49)

is a discipline in which experimentation precedes observation and hypothesis.

Now it happens that in anthropology, experimentation precedes both observation and hypothesis. One of the peculiarities of the small societies which we study is that each constitutes a complete experiment, because of its relative simplicity and the limited number of variables required to explain its functioning. But on the other hand, these societies are alive, and we have neither the time nor the means to manipulate them.

consists of the tension between participant and observation. Observation situates the anthropologist's activities.

Once one accepts a definition of anthropology as consisting of participant observation, as I had, then one's course of action is really governed by the oxymoronic terms... the tension between them defines the space of anthropology. Observation, however, is the governing term in the pair, since it situates the anthropologist' activities. However much one moves in the direction of participation, it is always the case that one is still both an outsider and an observer (Rabinow 79.)

is a discipline that continues to know itself as the study of social behavior or society in terms of systems of collective representations.

a discipline that 'continues to know itself as the study of social behavior or society in terms of systems and collective representations (1987: 281)

is a discipline that cultivates an inexhaustible treasure-hoard of experiences and concepts as well as a perpetual 'principle of dissatisfaction'... of calling into question, of criticism and contestation of what may seem, in other respects, to be established.

Psychoanalysis and ethnology occupy a privileged position in our knowledge not because they have established the foundations of their positivity better than any other human science, and at last accomplished the old attempt to be truly scientific... but rather because, on the confines of all the branches of knowledge investigating man, they form an undoubted and inexhaustible treasure-hoard of experiences and concepts, and above all a perpetual principle of dissatisfaction, of calling into question, of criticism and contestation of what may seem, in other respects, to be established. (foucault 1966 :373).

anthropology, n.Memes

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