Nomadic Thoughts: Only in North Carolina

Friday, June 17, 2005

Only in North Carolina

I need to have a little sit down with the judges here in North Carolina and explain to them that sentencing a convicted anthropologist to community service in the Amazon Jungle is not exactly a "punishment."

Rosita Heredia was convicted recently of selling a 1,000-piece collection of tribal art that contained feathers of endangered and protected birds. Heredia, a cultural anthropologist trained at Harvard was subsequently sentenced to three years probation, 40 hours of traditional community service, and a total donation of $20,000 toward saving the Amazon.

Although I'm sure Heredia will be working hard in the sweltering heat of the Amazon, something tells me she'll be smiling all the while. For scientists bred to tolerate and even enjoy the often harsh conditions of field work, an anthropologist "forced" to serve in the Amazon reads like a cheesy joke, as the Times Online headline suggests.

My opinion? It seems like a reasonable sentence especially considering the donations she'll have to make. Besides this and the ludicrousness of the Amazon sentence, anthropology is such a field that her professional reputation is irreparably damaged for good. She never stands a chance of being fully respected in the field again, and that's the worst punishment of all.

Propers to Bob at the B-Log for alerting me to this story that happened in my own backyard.

Posted by Will at June 17, 2005 01:29 AM in In the News