The Cultural Problem of the Cultural Anthropologist

An intensive analysis of Malinowski's diary reveals an ethnocentrism hitherto unnoticed in our discipline. Ethnocentrism is common to all societies and cultures, but what anthropologists have so far failed to understand is the very basic distinction between positive ethnocentrism and neutral ethnocentrism. Malinowski, being rooted in white European society and culture where positive enthocentrism prevails, suffered from some peculiar defects in perception of non- Western behavior that vitiated some of his theories, such as those on religion and culture change. This paper shows that some of his shortcomings are still with us today and indicates what we can do to remedy them. [religion, ethnocentrism, positive or neutral, Trobriand Islanders, mental hospitals, internal versus external impetuses to culture change, Christianity, Islam, proselytization, Primeval Flood myth, comparative studies, China, Europe, national character, methodology]     

The Anthropologist as Expert Witness

Anthropologists representing each of the subfields of the discipline have appeared as expert witnesses in a wide range of legal cases. Their appearance raises a number of significant questions about the appropriateness of anthropological knowledge to adversary proceedings, and poses difficult ethical problems for the participant and the profession. The present article reviews a series of cases in which anthropologists have served as expert witnesses and proposes a set of recommended standards and reforms for this activity . [ethics, expert testimony, legal anthropology, American society, applied anthropology]     

The Camera and the Anthropologist: Reflections on Photographic Agency

How does our choice of camera impact the way we see our field sites and carry out our work within them? What kinds of seeing does a particular camera enable or foreclose? This essay draws on recent theoretical interventions in new materialism and object-oriented ontology, as well as the author’s last decade of experience producing images in the field, to argue that visual anthropology is a collaborative, co-agentive act between anthropologist and camera. Our cameras matter, we conclude, and it is time for us to begin thinking through how they matter and the kinds of material differences they make.     

The Anthropology of Authenticity: Everyman His Own Anthropologist

Anthropology, the contributors to the recent volume Reinventing Anthropology tell us, is suffering from severe hardening of the intellectual arteries. In order for it to be revitalized, they say, the discipline must be de-professionalized and de-institutionalized, made more personal and existential. This involves a rejection of the pose of "objectivity" and "value-free" inquiry and an open admission of the inherently ideological nature of the discipline. In a word, anthropology will have to become politically and morally partisan. This essay explores some of the implications of the recommendations made by the reinventors of anthropology. The stance taken in Reinventing Anthropology, this paper contends, would not only undermine anthropology as a systematic field of inquiry but would also negate whatever "relevance" the discipline might have to the contemporary world.     

Plains Anthropologist Journal Of the Plains Conference

Abstract

Ethnographic literature of the late 19th and early 20th centuries contains a number of accounts of the use ofheat in the manufacture of chipped stone artifacts.Consistent failure of attempts to duplicate these techniquesled to scepticism regarding any association’ of fire with flint knapping. In 1964, Crabtree and Butler described a technique of thermal pretreatment which improved the working quality of the material and which they believedhad been used aboriginally. Archaeological evidence now indicates that use of this technique was widespread both geographically and temporally.

The need for a simple objective test for the identification of thermally pretreated archaeological materials has led to a number of investigations into the nature of chert and of the thermally induced changes which take place. Chert, a microcrystalline silicate, is composed of granular quartz microcrystals in a fibrous matrix. SEM micrographs indicate that fracture in raw chert tends to be intergranular and thatthematrix tears rather than breaking. With the application of heat, the fibrous matrix becomes fused, probablythrough the eutectic development of mineral impurities. The resultant material is more homogeneous and allows more predictable transgranular fracture.     

Sex, Sexuality, and the Anthropologist

Sex, Sexuality, and the Anthropologist. Fran Markowitz and Michael Ashkenazi. eds. Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1999.230 pp.