Ill-Defined Problem Sets: A Discussion

[marct]

Hi Dayuhan,

We could probably trade some amusing stories on this score. I live in an indigenous community that is very heavily studied; we always seem to have anthropologists and other social scientists in residence or passing through. In many cases one wonders why they come, as they seem to know what they will conclude before they even arrive!

I suspect we could trade some truly humourous stories !

As to why they come, there are some interesting structures operating in academic Anthropology. For example, certain universities "own" certain regions (that's the term I've heard!), and send their students there. Those are mainly the larger/richer universities, so the smaller ones have to make do with studying "sub-cultures" .

The community, of course, has its own ways of coping with being studied, and in many cases there are some truly hilarious comparative discussions of the methods, personalities, and assumptions of various researchers... is there a field of study in which those studied study those who study them?

Yup, although there really isn't a name for it. You might want to talk with the local community and see if they would be interested in publishing a book about it !

Cheers,

Marc