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Saturday, January 14, 2006
Foundations of Applied Anthropology: A response
One of my courses, entitled Foundations of Applied Anthropology II, requires us to post five questions and five resposes to classmates' questions over the course of the semester. This is done on USF's internet web forums. I'll reproduce some of my responses periodically because it makes for a quick and easy blog post!
We are currently reading Skull Wars
I too, while reading Skull Wars, saw the parallels between the U.S. government’s early Native American policies and our current policy regarding democracy and the spread of peace. There are some big differences but the effect is the same. The Western world, of which we are the most powerful representatives, have a monopoly on morality and worldview. It is often opined that cultures different than our own are somehow either against us or wanting to be like us. While this has never been explicitly stated by any recent administration (I could be wrong), foreign policy indicates that it is the dominate way of viewing nonwestern societies. As the federal government has an uncanny ability to shape public opinion, we end up with an American culture that is largely oblivious and sometimes even hostile toward cultures that do not exhibit similarities to a Western way of viewing the world. My classmate goes on to state that capitalism can be viewed as a more humane form of slavery. I would agree with this only after pointing out that in what is traditionally considered a slave/master relationship, there is a thinking human on both ends while capitalism is an economic system with a life of its own, dominated by those who wish to gain the greatest amount of wealth possible. For most, getting caught up in the capitalist machine is unavoidable because it is greater than any one person.
Social scientists are the “experts” on anything having to do with humans, at least in the view of the general public and the federal government. There is one small catch, however: they pick and choose. If the social sciences publish something that does not help a particular viewpoint or policy, it is simply ignored by the policy makers. Conversely, if they find a tidbit of information that furthers a cause they latch on to it not necessarily because it demonstrates a truth about humanity but because it is science and this alone produced the credibility of our product in the eyes of many. “Well, it’s science, sorry.” This puts the burden on us to produce responsible research, always mindful of who may be using it and for whatever purpose. It is wrong to take a hands-off approach and conclude that even if we do good science it is not our responsibility to ensure that it isn’t eventually used for harmful purposes.
I believe that anthropology, and applied anthropology in particular, is in a unique position to affect change and influence the wider society in which we are forced to operate. Like it or not, we live in a capitalist society that was built on the backs of those we eventually forgot about via poor policy-making and patronizing efforts to recognize our roots. This has changed dramatically over the past several decades although we still have a ways to go. The role of anthropology should be to play mediator in the growing influence of Western ideals and morality. We cannot stop the spread of the negative and harmful aspects of Western culture but we can facilitate the spread of the positive ones, such as charity and a genuine concern for others.
Posted by Will at January 14, 2006 06:34 PM in Papers and Essays