Entry tags:

#AAAFail
War between anthropology-as-science and anthropology-as-literary-theory continues, news at 11.

The short version: Anthropology has long been split between people who consider themselves scientists (they are using falsifiable hypotheses and empirical data to learn facts about how people behave) and people who feel that postmodern literary theory is a better way to approach the subject in a way that is conscious of one's own cultural biases. The scientists call the literary theorists "fluff-heads" while the literary theorists call the scientists as shallow as pro wrestlers. The American Anthropological Association (generally considered to be on the anthropology-as-literary-theory side of the fence, but still playing an important role in the rest of anthropology as the host of the annual academic-job-seeking process) recently amended their mission statement in the anti-science direction. Or rather, they wrote a new "long-range plan" that differs from their previous mission statement in the important sense that it can be approved by the executive committee without an actual vote of the membership.

As some Iain M. Banks fan writes: "I thought it was pretty telling that the AAA's move was not to make the statement more inclusive or add language clarifying that nonscientific inquiry was also valued. It was just to delete science."

There's a lot of self-important posturing and other forms of wanking on all sides, on the blogs and (of course) on twitter. This post has quite a few more good links.

Disclaimer: anthropology was my worst subject in college, and I haven't paid much attention to it since. I know which side of this debate I'd stand on, but I'm woefully underinformed.

(Read comments) - (Post a new comment)

sgaana
2010-12-05 11:29 pm UTC (link)

Well, more like, studying the way film and television becomes a *part* of the common stories we tell each other -- yes, they're commercial in origin (although they are all still "storytelling"), but where they really intersect folklore, I think, is the way that the audience takes them and they become a part of the way we relate to each other. (Which, if you notice, is not a million miles away from the concept of what we're doing with fanfic, either. But there's a difference between the way fic writers take the commonly-held properties, which are valuable because of their familiarity, and use elements of them to tell new stories; and the way, for example, you can argue that part of a shared culture is as much the ability to make offhand references or jokes to "Gilligan's Island" and have them be understood, as it is the ability to do that with what people would think of as the more classic folkloric canon, like Little Red Riding Hood.) (We've had some of our students do theses going both ways -- a recent grad looked at "Let the Right One In", while a past grad did work on the manifestations of LRRH in popular culture, from cartoons to advertising; which she turned into a published book.)

We'd call that "folklore", but I think at some point, the line between "folklore" and "social anthropology" is so fine as to be unimportant. At some institutions, you'd get your degree in Anthro, in some, in "Cultural Studies", and at a few remaining places, in "Folklore". (Folklore is, I suppose, a subset of Anthro in that it's looking at specifics kinds of cultural interactions; then again, "folkloristics" as a discipline has a pretty venerable history, and as we tend to explain it to people, it's more of a combination of the disciplines of the social sciences and the humanities. Where I am, Anthro is defined as a social science. Even the "soft" parts, as opposed to the more sciency parts.)

(Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	cmikhailovic 2010-12-06 03:10 pm UTC (link)
	Yeah, folklore has at various points also been a subdiscipline of literature, and also a discipline in its own right. So much is bound up with the cultures at individual institutions. (I'm a folklorist, and history of the discipline is one of my interests.) (Also, I AM THRILLED TO BITS that there are other folklore junkies here!) (Reply to this)(Parent)

sistercoyote
2010-12-06 06:26 pm UTC (link)

where they really intersect folklore, I think, is the way that the audience takes them and they become a part of the way we relate to each other.

Yes, this is pretty much what I meant; I recall getting stuck in a boat at the bottom of Pirates of the Caribbean at Disneyland (long story) and someone in the boat behind us started singing the "Gilligan's Island" theme song. Which everyone -- even the non-Americans -- recognized and could at least hum along with. Was kind of amusing, actually.

TV shows and very popular movies become sort of a cultural "taken-for-granted", I think, much as the old oral traditions did, and I think that's kind of how I see fanfic and I suspect it could be argued (though not by me!) that some of the "Old Tales" are also a sort of fanfic; new stories about well-known characters.

I must start researching programs. Not that I can afford to go back to school right now. However, this is all definitely relevant to my interests.

(Reply to this)(Parent)

	chibikaijuu 2010-12-07 09:31 pm UTC (link)
	a past grad did work on the manifestations of LRRH in popular culture, from cartoons to advertising; which she turned into a published book. I think I've read that book. I may or may not have thought it was awful, depending on which one it was. (Reply to this)(Parent)

(Read comments) -