Posted by Matiz on December 14, 2000 at 09:50:08:
In Reply to: 40 yrs. in the Belly of the Beast posted by MuleLip on December 13, 2000 at 21:59:11:
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Verdad, ML. But sometimes a story untold is preferable to one told from only from a single, narrow perspective. Anthropologists have hardly distinguished themselves with the results of their scientific research over the last century. Mead's work in Samoa, long thought seminal, has been discredited, as has Chagnon's work with the Yanomamo. I studies under Greenway, a cultural determinist whose ideas were revolutionary fifty years ago and are, IMO, idiotic today. And of course the debate between evolutionary biologists and culturalists rages on, with no hope for a reasonable or enlightening end in sight. Social scientists approach every problem with the baggage of their own, biased perspectives that make it difficult for them to see the truth or, as you say, to tell those stories faithfully. Despite all her best intentions, it is doubtful that such a dissertation as TJResearcher describes will add anything new to the heap of useless and conflicting work already done by her predecessors. The more troubling questions of how to remove the deep divide between the "haves" and "have nots" in Mexico and other developing countries, how to provide young, uneducated Mexicanas with more viable "lifestyle" opportunities, and, ultimately, how to address the gnawing dissatisfaction with the human condition that each person inevitably feels, are, I fear, the real issues, but ones that are far beyond TJR's meager research budget.
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