Anthropology is the study of human beings in their "natural" social settings. Historically this has meant that anthropologists have studied small scale societies in which it was, in theory at least, possible to study the whole of the society.
Most of the early research by anthropologists was done in non-western societies. This was for several reasons. The main official reason was that most anthropologists were from western societies and were overly familiar with how they functioned, and would thus be unable to see the arbitrary nature of social mores and customs. It was hoped that strangeness would amplify the problems for investigation.
The second and no doubt major reason was that given that the western powers were dominant throughout the world it was harder for the non western subjects (often colonial subjects) to refuse to be be studied.
This has given anthropology something of a bad reputation.
Nowadays the situation is hopefully different and people like myself, as well as simply making careers by studying other people can contribute something to those societies which is useful to them. But this is not always easy, after all people in any society rarely are able to agree what they might want, and how the hell could I decide on their behalf?
Eventually I hope that this page will lead to some discussions of the history of anthropology and why it might be an important tradition that should not be submerged by sociology and by cultural studies.
Who is worth reading?
HOME
This page hosted by
Get your own Free Home Page