Page 1 of 11 123 ... LastLast
Results 1 to 20 of 210

Thread: Anthropology (catch all)

  1. #1
    Council Member marct's Avatar
    Join Date
    Aug 2006
    Location
    Ottawa, Canada
    Posts
    3,682

    Default Anthropology (catch all)

    Inside Anthropology, there is a tradition of looking at theater. There is an interesting article that was just published in the latest issue of Cultural Anthropology that ties in directly to post-combat operations (sort of Phase IV+).

    DISPLACING VIOLENCE: Making Pentecostal Memory in Postwar Sierra Leone
    ROSALIND SHAW
    Tufts University, Medford, MA

    In this article, I seek to locate the anthropology of social recovery within the work of memory. Following a decade of violent armed conflict in Sierra Leone, displaced youth in a Pentecostal church write and perform plays that are silent on the subject of the war, but renarrate it in the idiom of spiritual warfare against a subterranean demonic realm known as the Underworld. Ideas of the Underworld are part of a local retooling of the Pentecostal deliverance ministry to address Sierra Leone's years of war. Through their struggle against the Underworld, these Pentecostal youth reimagine Sierra Leone's war, reshaping experiences of violence that have shaped them and thereby transforming demonic memory into Pentecostal memory. Just as their own physical displacement is not an entirely negative condition, their displacement of violent memory is enabling rather than repressive. By "forgetting" the war as a direct realist account and reworking it through the lens of the Underworld, they use war itself to re-member their lives. Although they do not lose their memories of terror and violence, they learn to transform these in ways that allow them to create a moral life course in which they are much more than weak dependents.
    I'm going to have to go through this one carefully, but it may have some useful insights into how people re-construct memories into a religious format.

    Marc
    Sic Bisquitus Disintegrat...
    Marc W.D. Tyrrell, Ph.D.
    Institute of Interdisciplinary Studies,
    Senior Research Fellow,
    The Canadian Centre for Intelligence and Security Studies, NPSIA
    Carleton University
    http://marctyrrell.com/

  2. #2
    Council Member
    Join Date
    Jan 2007
    Posts
    1,188

    Default Ju-jus and Bibles

    It would be interesting to see some longitudinal studies on the duration of the conversion to non-violent conflict resolution techniques in their personal and collective lives. Implicit in my concept of conversion is the assumption of a desire to not again take up arms for a cause once having been able to recapture parts of their lost childhood and times of normalacy. Spirituality may or may not be shown to be as decisive a factor in all of this as say a decent job and peaceful communities in which to reside. Fat bellies and steady paychecks can go a long ways you know and I am not denigrating anything ritually spiritual that can and does assist in this process. However, having known a number of old WW2 Vets who after all the years of living the 'good life' still had regular nightmares, suffice it to say PTSD from combat is a strange psychological beast that is really not understood to this day.

    P.W. Singer (Parameters, Winter 01-02) has some interesting things to say about kids and combat and he suggests that for those recently converted and/or coereced into combat roles, quick disruption works the best to then set the stage for conversion out of a combat mentality. With regards to the Sierra Leone kids you mention, we can quite possibly thank Executive Outcomes for the quick disruption that has set them hopefully on a better path - at least for the boys that were up in the diamond fields if Singer's assertions are correct. It would be an interesting Academic aside to see if and how many of the boys most into theatre-as-salvation were actually up in the diamond fields when EO hit that area and freed it in record time. Easy come, easy go as they say and the ol' Bible or ju-ju IMHO may or may not recapture lost youth as easily as we may desire, particularily in volatile 3rd world environments. If in looking at the mau-maus for instance, we see spirituality played a crucial role in working the lads up for some real butchery, the correlative opposite of what is happening in Sierra Leone with these kids.

    It is gratifying to see Academics such as yourself having a genuine interest and making contributions to things Military and Security related when so many of your peers eschew said vital matters. Good day to you, sir.

  3. #3
    Council Member marct's Avatar
    Join Date
    Aug 2006
    Location
    Ottawa, Canada
    Posts
    3,682

    Default Spiritual "reconstruction"

    Hi Goesh,

    Quote Originally Posted by goesh View Post
    It would be interesting to see some longitudinal studies on the duration of the conversion to non-violent conflict resolution techniques in their personal and collective lives.
    I agree, it would be interesting. Theatre, and especially "religious" or "ritual" theatre, has an interesting history in large parts of Africa as a form of dealing with political conflict.

    Quote Originally Posted by goesh View Post
    Implicit in my concept of conversion is the assumption of a desire to not again take up arms for a cause once having been able to recapture parts of their lost childhood and times of normalacy.
    Hmmm, certainly something to test out. Honestly, though, I doubt that there is so much a desire to not take up arms again as there is to "place" the experiences within a coherent and comprehensible framework. In many ways, the very action of "conversion" may increase the likelihood of taking up arms, depending on the symbol system used to comprehend the original events.

    Quote Originally Posted by goesh View Post
    Spirituality may or may not be shown to be as decisive a factor in all of this as say a decent job and peaceful communities in which to reside. Fat bellies and steady paychecks can go a long ways you know and I am not denigrating anything ritually spiritual that can and does assist in this process. However, having known a number of old WW2 Vets who after all the years of living the 'good life' still had regular nightmares, suffice it to say PTSD from combat is a strange psychological beast that is really not understood to this day.
    It's an interesting problem that, I believe, works both ways: a lack of food and security motivated many of the Palestinian terrorist groups and, today, many of the al-Qaida people are recruited from middle class families because of a "spiritual poverty". On the PTSD issue, I agree. You might want to take a look at some of the work by WHR Rivers from WW I - he had some interesting takes on PTSD back when it was first being diagnosed as Shell Shock.

    Quote Originally Posted by goesh View Post
    With regards to the Sierra Leone kids you mention, we can quite possibly thank Executive Outcomes for the quick disruption that has set them hopefully on a better path - at least for the boys that were up in the diamond fields if Singer's assertions are correct. It would be an interesting Academic aside to see if and how many of the boys most into theatre-as-salvation were actually up in the diamond fields when EO hit that area and freed it in record time.
    I certainly agree with that! EO did a really good job in Sierra Leone. And you are righyt, it would be interesting to find out. I'll try t remember to email the author and see if she knows.

    Quote Originally Posted by goesh View Post
    Easy come, easy go as they say and the ol' Bible or ju-ju IMHO may or may not recapture lost youth as easily as we may desire, particularily in volatile 3rd world environments. If in looking at the mau-maus for instance, we see spirituality played a crucial role in working the lads up for some real butchery, the correlative opposite of what is happening in Sierra Leone with these kids.
    Certainly. Ritual is really about changes in perception more than anything else, and those changes can lead in any number of directions.

    Quote Originally Posted by goesh View Post
    It is gratifying to see Academics such as yourself having a genuine interest and making contributions to things Military and Security related when so many of your peers eschew said vital matters. Good day to you, sir.
    Thank you, sir. As to my peers and their opinions, well you are, unfortunately, correct.

    Marc
    Sic Bisquitus Disintegrat...
    Marc W.D. Tyrrell, Ph.D.
    Institute of Interdisciplinary Studies,
    Senior Research Fellow,
    The Canadian Centre for Intelligence and Security Studies, NPSIA
    Carleton University
    http://marctyrrell.com/

  4. #4
    Council Member
    Join Date
    Feb 2007
    Location
    Rancho La Espada, Blanchard, OK
    Posts
    1,065

    Default Comments on Marc T's article in Vol 7

    If you haven't read Marc's article in the new issue of the magazine, I recommend it to you all. As a political scientist with enough courses for a graduate minor in anthropology, I learned much. Marc develops the theme of conflict between card carrying anthropologists and the "military" in a way that demands a dialogue - although how you have a dialogue with those who do not want to talk to you, I don't know.

    The only quarrel I have with Marc is regarding his comments on Project Camelot - a study of political instability in Latin America in the 1960s sponsored by the US Army and conducted by the Special Operations Research Office at American University. The lead investigator was a political scientist, not an anthropologist. My quarrel, then, is that by confining the discussion to anthropolgy Marc doesn't show that the problem extends to nearly all the social sciences to a greater or lesser extent.

    I would close these comments on two humorous notes:

    1. Some have said that the last refuge for Marxist-Leninists is the American university.

    2. Several years ago, a retired Army Col and FAO at the Army War College, Don Boose, created what he called the Malinowski Cultural Sensitivity Award. It was based on the fact that cultural anthropoligist Bronislaw Malinowski's 1930s studies of the Trobriand Islanders were marvels of cultural sensitivity. However, when his field notes surfaced some 30 years later in the 1960s, they were scathing and scatological comments on the customs and culture of those same people. In recognition of this human failing Don created the award to be given to that individual who, despite knowing better, makes a truly stupid and culturally insensitive remark. Needless to say, the majority of the recipients have been Army FAOs!

  5. #5
    Council Member
    Join Date
    Jan 2007
    Posts
    1,188

    Default Savage Minds and Silent Lambs

    Dr. Tyrrell referenced the Savage Minds blog. I browsed and read for a couple of months from Savage Minds about a year ago and I remember thinking to myself, "there is a fair amount of morality being injected here." I find the cited comments by Paul McDowell and Gerald Sider to be somewhat alarming, beyond disconcerting. I can't help but wonder what in their heart-of-hearts McDowell and Sider would truly have to say about the tactics of ELF and PETA for instance, in light of their blatant efforts to politicize their Discipline(s). Indeed! "We're trying to do something against mealy-mouthed policies that don't hold responsible those scum with Ph.D.'s who stand beside torturers" (Gerald Sider) This is the language of disciplined, objective, professional science and highly paid Academics? It sounds more Marxist avant-garde.

    McDowell bemoans the poor, exploited Natives with this bitter polemic cited by Dr. Tyrrell:"Like the Government and its military, corporations don't give a rat's posterior about so-called target populations." Fine, but where was his voice and the voices of others like him when the poor Natives were being exploited by the likes of Ward Chruchill out of the Universtiy of Colorado? Here was a Prof. on the fast tenure track who not only fabricated and misrepresented information on Native Americans, he also plagarized and misrepresented himself as being an Indian. Boas wouldn't like that now would he? What I call the silence of the lambs on not only the part of Anthropologists but Academics in general over this fiasco and unprofessional product associated with a male bovine's posterior, can be directly attributed to the politicizing of Academia. In short, Ward Churchill was blatantly anti-American, anti-Government and a Bush hater, which is all that saved him from being publically and vigorously castigated. In fact, some universities, like Wisconsin, paid him to come and give a presentation. Talk about savage minds, Churchill actually had the audacity to claim heritage from a couple of different tribes and to this day, I am not aware of any outrage expressed over this from the Academic community. A number of Native Americans have spoken out over this of course but one would have expected at least some outrage coming from the Anthropology camp.

  6. #6
    Council Member marct's Avatar
    Join Date
    Aug 2006
    Location
    Ottawa, Canada
    Posts
    3,682

    Default A couple of responses

    Hello John,

    Quote Originally Posted by John T. Fishel View Post
    If you haven't read Marc's article in the new issue of the magazine, I recommend it to you all. As a political scientist with enough courses for a graduate minor in anthropology, I learned much. Marc develops the theme of conflict between card carrying anthropologists and the "military" in a way that demands a dialogue - although how you have a dialogue with those who do not want to talk to you, I don't know.
    Thanks for the recommendation . You are quite correct about me trying to develop the theme of a conflict between Anthropology and the "military". My intention was, indeed, to try and lay out where I saw that conflict coming from as well as some of the more extreme versions of it that are surfacing.

    I have been concerned by the anti-corporation, anti-military stance within Anthropology for years, now. This is not because I do not believe that there have been corporate or military abuses of power - there have been and there continue to be. Rather, what has bothered me most, is the extreme form of polarization that has happened where any actions by the military and corporations are characterized as "evil". I honestly do not believe that any profitable form of dialog can happen where the "sides" automatically assume evil intentions on the part of the other.

    Is a dialog possible? Certainly, but the strategy of setting one up and keeping it going has more in common with a COIN operation than with the more conventional "academic dialog".

    Quote Originally Posted by John T. Fishel View Post
    The only quarrel I have with Marc is regarding his comments on Project Camelot - a study of political instability in Latin America in the 1960s sponsored by the US Army and conducted by the Special Operations Research Office at American University. The lead investigator was a political scientist, not an anthropologist. My quarrel, then, is that by confining the discussion to anthropolgy Marc doesn't show that the problem extends to nearly all the social sciences to a greater or lesser extent.
    John, you are, of course, quite correct in that the problem certainly permeates the entirety of the social sciences. I didn't deal with any of the others for several reasons. First, I know Anthropology best and that is the discipline that has taken the most publicly radical stance. Second, over the past couple of years, the "military" has been identifying Anthropology as a "must recruit" discipline. Third, Anthropology and, to a lessor extent qualitative Sociology, uses a rather unique primary methodology that significantly alters the perception of the user. To my mind, this sets it in opposition to the more "theologically" oriented disciplines - the difference between gnosis and logos as it were.

    Quote Originally Posted by John T. Fishel View Post
    I would close these comments on two humorous notes:

    1. Some have said that the last refuge for Marxist-Leninists is the American university.
    True, and the ones who are too radical even for American universities end up in Canada .

    Quote Originally Posted by John T. Fishel View Post
    2. Several years ago, a retired Army Col and FAO at the Army War College, Don Boose, created what he called the Malinowski Cultural Sensitivity Award. It was based on the fact that cultural anthropoligist Bronislaw Malinowski's 1930s studies of the Trobriand Islanders were marvels of cultural sensitivity. However, when his field notes surfaced some 30 years later in the 1960s, they were scathing and scatological comments on the customs and culture of those same people. In recognition of this human failing Don created the award to be given to that individual who, despite knowing better, makes a truly stupid and culturally insensitive remark. Needless to say, the majority of the recipients have been Army FAOs!
    I can think of a few Anthropologists who should receive it .

    Marc
    Sic Bisquitus Disintegrat...
    Marc W.D. Tyrrell, Ph.D.
    Institute of Interdisciplinary Studies,
    Senior Research Fellow,
    The Canadian Centre for Intelligence and Security Studies, NPSIA
    Carleton University
    http://marctyrrell.com/

  7. #7
    Council Member marct's Avatar
    Join Date
    Aug 2006
    Location
    Ottawa, Canada
    Posts
    3,682

    Default

    Hi Goesh,

    Quote Originally Posted by goesh View Post
    Dr. Tyrrell referenced the Savage Minds blog. I browsed and read for a couple of months from Savage Minds about a year ago and I remember thinking to myself, "there is a fair amount of morality being injected here." I find the cited comments by Paul McDowell and Gerald Sider to be somewhat alarming, beyond disconcerting. I can't help but wonder what in their heart-of-hearts McDowell and Sider would truly have to say about the tactics of ELF and PETA for instance, in light of their blatant efforts to politicize their Discipline(s). Indeed! "We're trying to do something against mealy-mouthed policies that don't hold responsible those scum with Ph.D.'s who stand beside torturers" (Gerald Sider) This is the language of disciplined, objective, professional science and highly paid Academics? It sounds more Marxist avant-garde.
    "Dr. Tyrrell"? Since when have you been so formal with me in your comments?

    I definitely agree with you about the inclusion of "morality being injected" into the debates on Savage Minds. And believe me when I say it is not only there! The discipline has been politicized for years - sometimes for causes I would consider good, sometimes for causes I consider silly. BTW, Boas' work opposing race laws in the US in the 1920's - 1940's, his violent opposition to the Nazi takeover in Germany, and his insistence on mentoring and promoting women in academia are all examples of what I would consider to be "good causes".

    I think that the major problem that has happened centers around an increasing marginalization of the discipline of Anthropology and the concomitant glorifying in marginal status by some people (not all). In part, this marginalization comes from a denying of advances in the biological sciences and an increasing refusal to consider biology as having anything to do with culture (this stems from a disciplinary reaction against the Nazi eugenics ideology).

    I'm not going to write another paper here on it, so don't worry .

    Quote Originally Posted by goesh View Post
    McDowell bemoans the poor, exploited Natives with this bitter polemic cited by Dr. Tyrrell:"Like the Government and its military, corporations don't give a rat's posterior about so-called target populations." Fine, but where was his voice and the voices of others like him when the poor Natives were being exploited by the likes of Ward Chruchill out of the Universtiy of Colorado? Here was a Prof. on the fast tenure track who not only fabricated and misrepresented information on Native Americans, he also plagarized and misrepresented himself as being an Indian. Boas wouldn't like that now would he? What I call the silence of the lambs on not only the part of Anthropologists but Academics in general over this fiasco and unprofessional product associated with a male bovine's posterior, can be directly attributed to the politicizing of Academia. In short, Ward Churchill was blatantly anti-American, anti-Government and a Bush hater, which is all that saved him from being publically and vigorously castigated. In fact, some universities, like Wisconsin, paid him to come and give a presentation. Talk about savage minds, Churchill actually had the audacity to claim heritage from a couple of different tribes and to this day, I am not aware of any outrage expressed over this from the Academic community. A number of Native Americans have spoken out over this of course but one would have expected at least some outrage coming from the Anthropology camp.
    A very apropos question, Goesh, and one I can't really answer. I do know that some Anthropologists have spoken out against it but, in institutional settings where adopting that type of a moral stance is necessary for survival, it's not likely to happen that often. And, in many universities, the "anti-American, anti-Government and a Bush hater" trope is just normal <sigh>.

    Marc
    Sic Bisquitus Disintegrat...
    Marc W.D. Tyrrell, Ph.D.
    Institute of Interdisciplinary Studies,
    Senior Research Fellow,
    The Canadian Centre for Intelligence and Security Studies, NPSIA
    Carleton University
    http://marctyrrell.com/

  8. #8
    Council Member
    Join Date
    Jan 2007
    Posts
    1,188

    Default Off On A Tangent....

    "First, I know Anthropology best and that is the discipline that has taken the most publicly radical stance."

    In a horse race with Sociology in this category, Anthro might win by a nose. Even after Chancellor DiStefano from U of C set forth the findings of a 5 member panel levied against Churchill, the Public Sociology blogs had any number of credentialed Academics rallying to his defense. Unbelievable.

    In DeStefano's statement is mentioned that despite Churchill misrepresenting himself as a Native American, it was not an actionable offense. This could suggest that the hyper-charged politicized environment of Western Academia has yet to reach its zenith, when lying on employment applications in order to attain a salary is not actionable due to other more pressing considerations, like First Amendment rights.

    From the Committee's report comes this gem: " However, questions raised in regard to the allegation of misrepresentation of ethnicity to gain credibility and an audience for scholarship were also reviewed, and the Committee felt that such misrepresentation might constitute research misconduct and failure to meet the standards". This sounds like something evil corporations and the evil government would do to 3rd worlders, doesn't it? One could suggest conversely the smaller and poorer an ethnic group is, the less professional standards are applied in interacting with them. Anyway, this Post will probably be sent to the My Bloody Soapbox section of this forum......

  9. #9
    Council Member marct's Avatar
    Join Date
    Aug 2006
    Location
    Ottawa, Canada
    Posts
    3,682

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by goesh View Post
    Anyway, this Post will probably be sent to the My Bloody Soapbox section of this forum......
    Not yet . Actually, Academic ethics fit here, and that's what you are talking about.

    On the issue of "lying on employment applications", I do have a couple of comments. First, I have never felt comfortable with the race declarations that may American universities use. Technically, they are not required but, according to a number of people I've talked with, you'd better list yours. The first time I filled one out, I was flumoxed: the definitions were so "weird" and poorly defined that I ended up checking off every box. Needless to say, the head of HR emailed me wanting to know what the frak I was doing. My comments back were along the lines of my skin is white, my family lived in Spain 1200 years ago (their definition of "hispanic"), by Mohawk law I am a Mohawk (long story), my family originated on the Asian steppes 2000 years ago, and all modern humans came out of Africa. Her response was, we only care about 3 generations back. These days I just tick off "White" .

    Let's get back to academic ethics for a minute. One of the things that has always fascinated me about "academic ethics" is how plastic it is depending on who you are and what your supposed identity is. For example, when I was applying for PhD programs, I originally wanted to study how modern Witchcraft was being institutionalized (I'd done my MA on that topic). I was informed by the Chair of one department that a) I knew a lot about the topic (we'd talked for over an hour) and b) I would never get a job in academia with that specialization because I was a man.

    To my mind, "ethics" should be based on transcendent principles. I honestly think that Boas tried to do this 100 years ago. Somewhere along the line, however, these principles got replaced with moral statements masquerading as principles. For example, when I started my PhD fieldwork, it was drummed into me how "privileged" a position the ethnographer is in, and how unequal a power relationship exists between the ethnographer and their subjects. Certainly, this is true in some cases but, in my case, I was doing my fieldwork in the offices of the largest accounting / consulting firm in Canada. There was an unequal power relationship all right, but I certainly didn't have the whip hand!

    I truly doubt that, had I been a student of Boas in the 1920's or 1930's, I would have had to deal with either of these problems .

    Marc
    Sic Bisquitus Disintegrat...
    Marc W.D. Tyrrell, Ph.D.
    Institute of Interdisciplinary Studies,
    Senior Research Fellow,
    The Canadian Centre for Intelligence and Security Studies, NPSIA
    Carleton University
    http://marctyrrell.com/

  10. #10
    Council Member 120mm's Avatar
    Join Date
    Nov 2006
    Location
    Wonderland
    Posts
    1,284

    Default

    I love your "race" comment, Marc. I am allegedly Irish-Something, but because I am an anonymous adoptee, who really knows?

    My eye-doctor studies ethnic anthropomorphic(sp?) characteristics, and claims my large and well-developed epicanthric eye folds suggest Asian or Middle-eastern descent.

    Basically, in the racist world of "equal opportunity" you are what you say you are.

  11. #11
    Council Member
    Join Date
    Jan 2007
    Posts
    1,188

    Default Cultural Clout

    Had Ward Churchill claimed Black heritage based on remotely reported ancestoral connections, like he did with his Native American lineage, he would have been drummed out long ago, despite his vehement, Liberal anti-American stances. He claimed Cherokee then Choctaw heritage. How much traction would he have had if he claimed his great, great, great, great Grandma was a slave on Georgia plantation, then next year he connected himself to a Grandfather coming out of a South Carolina plantation? None. Some cultures simply have more clout than others.

  12. #12
    Council Member marct's Avatar
    Join Date
    Aug 2006
    Location
    Ottawa, Canada
    Posts
    3,682

    Default

    Hi 120mm,

    Quote Originally Posted by 120mm View Post
    I love your "race" comment, Marc. I am allegedly Irish-Something, but because I am an anonymous adoptee, who really knows?

    My eye-doctor studies ethnic anthropomorphic(sp?) characteristics, and claims my large and well-developed epicanthric eye folds suggest Asian or Middle-eastern descent.

    Basically, in the racist world of "equal opportunity" you are what you say you are.
    It is an odd setup in a lot of ways . One of the things that Boas really pushed was to look at individuals rather than phenotypic groups. You're right about the self-declared categories but, it's interesting to note, that you can only use "approved" categories.

    I got called by Statistics Canada for a survey of PhD graduates, and one of the questions was my "ethnicity". Being in a somewhat frustrated mood with such silly questions, I answered with my father's family ethnicity, which is Visigoth (yeah, we can track our family back about 1600 - 2000 years, or at least the clan). Well, Visigoth wasn't an "approved" ethnicity so they asked for another one. I gave them Mohawk, which is legally true by Mohawk law (not Canadian law) even though I have no Mohawk blood (long story). It probably ruined their stats but, if they are going to not accept a self-defined ethnicity that they don't list, then their survey isn't worth much.

    One of the things I've noticed about PC academia is that there is a distinct game of victim poker going on. The more "your people" have been "abused", the higher the cards in the game. This really came out when I was doing my MA (in Canadian Studies). I realized very quickly that I had 5 strikes against me: white, male, straight, Anglophone, from Toronto. I was informed by one professor that I could never "really understand Canadian culture" because of my "limitations" - this despite the fact that my family has been in Canada for over 200 years and she, who of course did understand Canadian culture, was an American who came to Canada in the early 1970's with her draft dodging boyfriend . Needless to say, I became quite "sensitized" to the "racist, sexist and homophobic" attitudes of my "culture", i.e. PC academia .

    The one good thing about that entire experience was that I developed a distinct distaste for PC morality masquerading as "academic research".

    Marc
    Sic Bisquitus Disintegrat...
    Marc W.D. Tyrrell, Ph.D.
    Institute of Interdisciplinary Studies,
    Senior Research Fellow,
    The Canadian Centre for Intelligence and Security Studies, NPSIA
    Carleton University
    http://marctyrrell.com/

  13. #13
    Moderator Steve Blair's Avatar
    Join Date
    Oct 2005
    Location
    Montana
    Posts
    3,195

    Default

    We see this in history as well, Marc, especially with the rise of the post-modernist mafia. I actually had an article come back with "feedback" saying that I wasn't telling enough of the Native American perspective. The article, by the way, was an analysis of the operation patterns of a cavalry regiment. It had more to do with where companies were stationed and their patterns of activity as opposed to any sort of battle history. In fact, there really was no Native American side to show.

    On the other hand, I've seen plenty of articles dealing with the Frontier Army period that will dismiss the Army out of hand and go on to focus on the NA perspective or some such. I like balance in my history, but when you start seeing forced "perspective" then I get a little touchy...

  14. #14
    Council Member marct's Avatar
    Join Date
    Aug 2006
    Location
    Ottawa, Canada
    Posts
    3,682

    Default Post-modernism and other psychoses

    Hi Steve,

    Quote Originally Posted by Steve Blair View Post
    We see this in history as well, Marc, especially with the rise of the post-modernist mafia.
    "Mafia" - a good description . Personally, being an individualist, I've always tended to refer to the extreme post-modernist crowd as suffering from Post Modernist Syndrome (PMS); a psychological syndrome characterized by occasional outbreaks of ego-maniacal paranoia, irrational assaults, and the adoption of psychotic forms of reality occasionally accompanied by command hallucinations (e.g. "Foucault has said that...") .

    Quote Originally Posted by Steve Blair View Post
    I actually had an article come back with "feedback" saying that I wasn't telling enough of the Native American perspective. The article, by the way, was an analysis of the operation patterns of a cavalry regiment. It had more to do with where companies were stationed and their patterns of activity as opposed to any sort of battle history. In fact, there really was no Native American side to show.
    I've had the same thing happen, both from the PMS crowd and from Marxist-Leninist true believers. What always bothered me about the Anthro PMS crowd was their habit of disregarding anything pre-Geertz (~1970). Their rejection of the older works in the discipline didn't come from actually reading them but, rather, from the assumption that they were flawed. Certainly some of them were, but their automatic rejection of all works that didn't meet their "purity laws" meant that they also neglected all of the insights available. Since this included all of the core philosophical assumptions behind the post-modernist movement, many of which had been in Anthro from the 1920's, I was frequently left feeling that the pomos were acting like people who, having just reinvented the wheel, were trying to prove to the world that they were the first to come up with it .

    Quote Originally Posted by Steve Blair View Post
    On the other hand, I've seen plenty of articles dealing with the Frontier Army period that will dismiss the Army out of hand and go on to focus on the NA perspective or some such. I like balance in my history, but when you start seeing forced "perspective" then I get a little touchy...
    Too true! I have no problems with biases since they are inevitable. Still and all, I think that biases should be stated - e.g. "This article is concerned with cavalry tactics" - or an attempt should be made to present all sides involved. A forced perspective, and maybe we should translate that as a PC perspective that valorizes "victims", is a travesty that, to my mind, erodes core scientific values. As you can tell, I get a bit "touchy" as well .

    Marc
    Sic Bisquitus Disintegrat...
    Marc W.D. Tyrrell, Ph.D.
    Institute of Interdisciplinary Studies,
    Senior Research Fellow,
    The Canadian Centre for Intelligence and Security Studies, NPSIA
    Carleton University
    http://marctyrrell.com/

  15. #15
    Council Member Stan's Avatar
    Join Date
    Dec 2006
    Location
    Estonia
    Posts
    3,817

    Default

    Evening Marc !
    Fieldwork, for a cultural Anthropologist, is a lot more than going to bars and watching people. The North American tradition is to spend a "decent" amount of time, e.g. a minimum of nine months, living with the group you are studying, and time periods, on and off, of twenty to thirty years working with
    the same group are not that uncommon. Officially, this time is required to gather data and gain a good understanding of the more subtle and hidden aspects of the culture.
    This is not something new, but for some reason, we ignore it with our tours overseas. The typical tour abroad is 2 to 3 years. The first 6 months is literally a waste, as the individual can barely drive home on his/her own. About the point that Dick or Jane is productive, the tour is half over and once he/she rotates, the knowledge (if anything tangilble) is gone.

    I might be one of the few exceptions staying for 10 to 12 years in one place. I felt comfort in my surroundings and communicated well with my counterparts. So well, that I began to understand the social and cultural exchanges as if I was one of them. Only then, did I begin to realize how much easier life was among them.

    Case in point (Tom pointed out to me): I hated the Zairois even after 10 years of teaching and observing them. Thieves! But I somehow managed to get along with them even during a civil war where the white man was the enemy. I have no idea how I did it and kept my sanity.

    I hope you write more (I need the free anthro lessons)
    Regards, Stan

  16. #16
    Council Member 120mm's Avatar
    Join Date
    Nov 2006
    Location
    Wonderland
    Posts
    1,284

    Default

    I have to confess that I didn't read the article until now. But I've been down with a virus for the last 5 days and am going stir-crazy, and now that I've read it, my pulse has pegged at least three times.

    After I calmed down, I am reminded of a young Anthropologist who came to live with us in a small midwestern town in the early 90s. She was from upstate "NWYARK", and was studying the small town midwest (nothing like working what you know, eh?). In particular, she was interested in the interaction of the old guys downtown, and spent a lot of time just hanging around them.

    I let her run on the line for about 3 months before I shattered her little idealistic world. I was working in a Social Work field at the time, which is how she came to us, and one night over supper the conversation turned to her work. She discussed some of what she'd "learned" in her observations, and I let the hammer drop. I merely asked her how she was dealing with contaminating her subject. Long silence and look of confusion. "Contaminating my subject?" she responded. In short, I asked her how she thought that she was actually observing genuine "old man in a midwestern town" behavior, when she was 23, from upstate "Nwyark" and quite beautiful. She had no idea that old men in a small midwestern town might adapt their behavior when in the presence of a young, beautiful woman who was considered by the men to be their social superior AND was there for some ulterior purpose. She also had absolutely no clue about male-female interaction, as she had been thoroughly washed in the PC "men and women are no different" blood.

    If she is an example of what passes for Anthro today, I wonder just how useful Anthropologists will actually BE for the military.

  17. #17
    Council Member marct's Avatar
    Join Date
    Aug 2006
    Location
    Ottawa, Canada
    Posts
    3,682

    Default

    Hi 120mm,

    Quote Originally Posted by 120mm View Post
    I have to confess that I didn't read the article until now. But I've been down with a virus for the last 5 days and am going stir-crazy, and now that I've read it, my pulse has pegged at least three times.
    Well, a least it brought some "excitement". Honestly, when I was researching / writing it, my pulse spiked about 20-30 times. I had to rewrite the final section at least 10 times before calmed down.

    Quote Originally Posted by 120mm View Post
    After I calmed down, I am reminded of a young Anthropologist who came to live with us in a small midwestern town in the early 90s. She was from upstate "NWYARK", and was studying the small town midwest (nothing like working what you know, eh?). In particular, she was interested in the interaction of the old guys downtown, and spent a lot of time just hanging around them.

    let her run on the line for about 3 months before I shattered her little idealistic world. I was working in a Social Work field at the time, which is how she came to us, and one night over supper the conversation turned to her work. She discussed some of what she'd "learned" in her observations, and I let the hammer drop. I merely asked her how she was dealing with contaminating her subject. Long silence and look of confusion. "Contaminating my subject?" she responded. In short, I asked her how she thought that she was actually observing genuine "old man in a midwestern town" behavior, when she was 23, from upstate "Nwyark" and quite beautiful. She had no idea that old men in a small midwestern town might adapt their behavior when in the presence of a young, beautiful woman who was considered by the men to be their social superior AND was there for some ulterior purpose. She also had absolutely no clue about male-female interaction, as she had been thoroughly washed in the PC "men and women are no different" blood.
    What always gets me about the "observer effect" is how poorly it is taught and understood. 120, I've seen people who are just like the woman you are describing; all too many of them, and you are absolutely right to tie it back into the PC assumptions that now permeate much of the discipline.

    I think a large part of the roots of this problem go back to two culture traits inside much of modern Anthropology: a) a "distaste" (trans. "hatred") of mathematics, and b) a "distaste" (trans. "ignorance" or "politically motivated rejection") of older (pre-1973) Anthropology.

    For years, now, the discipline has been importing ideas from physics. Indeed, Malinowski, who I consider to be one of the best Anthropologists of the 20th century, had his first doctorate in natural philosophy (math, physics, etc.). Ever since the mid to late 1960s or so, there was an increasing rejection of mathematical axioms and an increasing reliance on "theological / theoretical axioms". The general popularizations of physics and mathematics were coming into the discipline as opposed to the models which had been written by people who understood the mathematics.

    Starting sometime in the 1970's, I think, the concept of Schrödinger's cat starts to appear in the form of "the Observer Effect". The problem is that it appears out of its mathematical context and, often, is applied outside of the theoretical space in which it was created (i.e. the idea that, without direct observation, no exact statement of "reality" can be made but, once observed, the act of observation "creates" that reality by "selecting" one option from a manifold of potential options). In it's original formulation, designed to talk about quantum mechanics, you have to at least theorize an infinity of possible states.

    So, now we come to your example of the 23 year old, good looking female Anthropologist. Ideally, she should "know" that she will affect the people she is studying. If absolutely nothing else, there is something very disturbing about the idea of a young, pretty woman not recognizing that she will have an effect on older men (thank you very much radical separatist feminism!). Now, if she had been trained well, or had bothered to study how she influenced people, or if she had bothered to read Malinowski's Appendix G to Coral Gardens and their Magic, she would have realized that she will influence how they react and what they would talk about in her presence. Ideally, if she had followed the older traditions in American Anthropology, she would have been working with a male partner.

    You are quite right when you say she was blinded by the "equality of the sexes" axiom. She has confused a transcendent, "ideal" (in the Platonic sense) valuation with a material reality and, from the sounds of it, like many true believers, she confused "Truth" with "reality" and her research would, inevitably, be seriously flawed as a result.

    Quote Originally Posted by 120mm View Post
    If she is an example of what passes for Anthro today, I wonder just how useful Anthropologists will actually BE for the military.
    That is a very good question . So, let me toss an observation back a you in my usual round about way. As with many groups, the military tends to conceive of people outside of their group using stereotypes. This isn't a value statement, it's actually a very pro-survival characteristic (hey, you don't train soldiers to stop and exhaustively analyze every situation rationally, do you? Nope, train for specific mission types and "guide" the "analysis" of a given specific by the ROE). But this type of training encourages stereotypical thinking, and we see this all the time in the search for the stereotyped, "ideal" weapons system.

    The current "popularity" of Anthropology with the military as an institution comes out of this mind set: Anthropologists are being "sold" as an "ideal weapons system" based on the idea that you can plug in an Anthropologist (120 volt, DC power source needed) and get actionable intelligence. Take a look at how the Human Terrain Project is described and you will see what I mean.

    There is, however, a flawed assumption operating here: Cultural Anthropology is not a "plug and play" discipline by its very nature (that's why I went into all that stuff about verstehen). To make matters even worse, many of the current conditions within the discipline mediate against the proper use of verstehen while maintaining the outward form of participant observation research. In order for it to "work", it must a) be balanced with other types of knowledge and b) the person using it must "know themselves". If either of these additional two criteria are missing, and both have been under attack in the PC theocratic environment, then the results will be seriously flawed. There is one other point to make about these two criteria: they become, in effect, the divisors for choosing Anthropologists to work with the military. Let me expand on this.

    What the military "needs", as opposed to what the Human Terrain Project "wants", is Anthropologists who will give them the best research, analysis and interpretation possible even when it conflicts with accepted military wisdom. This means that you are going to have to find Anthropologists who are willing to tell the military people they are working with that they are flat out wrong at times; not exactly the best way to win friends and influence people . It also means that you are going to have to find Anthropologists whose egos can take being told that they are full of Sierra - an equally rare occurrence .

    So, to conclude this monograph , let me just say that Anthropologists, as a group, could help the military - I think we have certainly proved that in the past and continue to do so today. But it becomes crucial to consider Anthropologists not as a group, but as individuals.

    Marc
    Sic Bisquitus Disintegrat...
    Marc W.D. Tyrrell, Ph.D.
    Institute of Interdisciplinary Studies,
    Senior Research Fellow,
    The Canadian Centre for Intelligence and Security Studies, NPSIA
    Carleton University
    http://marctyrrell.com/

  18. #18
    Council Member 120mm's Avatar
    Join Date
    Nov 2006
    Location
    Wonderland
    Posts
    1,284

    Default

    Marc, are familiar with the Science Fiction series called "The Harriers?" For some apparent reason, a technologically superior race of Politically Correct Anthropologists take over the universe, but reluctantly agree that a military is necessary, but only if supervised by a direct representative. Very funny and apropos stuff.

  19. #19
    Council Member marct's Avatar
    Join Date
    Aug 2006
    Location
    Ottawa, Canada
    Posts
    3,682

    Default

    Hi 120mm,

    Quote Originally Posted by 120mm View Post
    Marc, are familiar with the Science Fiction series called "The Harriers?" For some apparent reason, a technologically superior race of Politically Correct Anthropologists take over the universe, but reluctantly agree that a military is necessary, but only if supervised by a direct representative. Very funny and apropos stuff.
    No, I haven't heard of it which, since I'm an SF junky, is an embarrassment . I'll check it out - thanks for the note. BTW, the idea of PC Anthropologists in that role really scares me .

    Marc
    Sic Bisquitus Disintegrat...
    Marc W.D. Tyrrell, Ph.D.
    Institute of Interdisciplinary Studies,
    Senior Research Fellow,
    The Canadian Centre for Intelligence and Security Studies, NPSIA
    Carleton University
    http://marctyrrell.com/

  20. #20
    Council Member
    Join Date
    May 2006
    Location
    Just outside the Beltway
    Posts
    203

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by marct View Post
    The current "popularity" of Anthropology with the military as an institution comes out of this mind set: Anthropologists are being "sold" as an "ideal weapons system" based on the idea that you can plug in an Anthropologist (120 volt, DC power source needed) and get actionable intelligence. Take a look at how the Human Terrain Project is described and you will see what I mean.
    Marc,

    We need a 240V version too so we can plug you guys into local power grids as well when we deploy

Similar Threads

  1. French urban rioting (catch all)
    By SWJED in forum Europe
    Replies: 37
    Last Post: 02-22-2017, 10:02 AM
  2. Anthropology and Global Counterinsurgency
    By SWJED in forum Social Sciences, Moral, and Religious
    Replies: 0
    Last Post: 04-23-2008, 10:05 AM
  3. Anthropology and the Military - on at 11am EST October 10, 2007
    By marct in forum Social Sciences, Moral, and Religious
    Replies: 15
    Last Post: 10-12-2007, 03:21 PM
  4. Anthropology and Torture
    By marct in forum Social Sciences, Moral, and Religious
    Replies: 1
    Last Post: 09-21-2007, 06:01 PM
  5. Don't Send a Lion to Catch a Mouse
    By SWJED in forum Futurists & Theorists
    Replies: 23
    Last Post: 03-15-2007, 11:46 AM

Bookmarks

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •