• On vengeance and feuding
Canada’s National Post carried an article about the execution (assassination?) of Gaddafi which quoted Ronald Niezen, chair of anthropology at McGill University in Montreal. Niezen said that the killing of Col. Gaddafi “establishes the legitimacy of the old tribal allegiances that are destabilizing of state structures…The danger is the complete destabilizing of the fledging state, because the institutions on which it depends for stability are weakened by that informal sphere of tribal alliances. Maybe he was such an exceptional figure that the fallout will not be disarray, but it was an opportunity, when he was taken, for the state to be legitimated [by bringing him to trial].”

• It’s not working
There’s more to securing our future than technical and commercial innovation, writes Dame Anne Salmond, Distinguished Professor of Maori Studies and Anthropology at the University of Auckland. She argues that the international rating agencies have done New Zealanders a favor: the double downgrade of the country’s credit rating makes it clear that the policies promoted by successive governments are not working. [Blogger’s note: Dame Salmond’s long-term collaborative research with the Maoris, and the several publications resulting from it, may offer alternative insights for policy makers about more effective policies].

• Highlights about our friend Governor Scott
Some people believe there is no such thing as bad publicity. So, for better or worse, Governor Scott of Florida has brought anthropology into the media limelight as a field of study. Several anthropologists have responded, this past week, to Governor Scott’s dismissal of anthropology as being of little use to Florida’s economic future or career prospects of graduates.

Cultural anthropologist Janice Harper published an essay in the Huffington Post in which she stated that responses from anthropologists seeking to educate him on the vital role anthropology plays in the sciences, and the contributions it makes to policy, health, international development and even Homeland Security are unlikely to persuade him to reconsider his position: “When people publicly commit to a religious or political perspective, whether left or right or what have you, when presented with information challenging their positions they become more certain, not less certain, of their positions, as anyone in sales, marketing or psychology well knows. Moreover, Scott is probably quite aware of the role the social sciences already play in shaping policy and public perception. If anything, his sensitivity to anthropology’s social reach may well be what is influencing his aim to gut funding to the discipline and to other liberal arts programs, because these programs encourage critical thinking and challenge exclusionary policies and practices based on race, religion, class, gender and other social categories.”

Cultural anthropologist Paul Stoller also published a piece in the Huffington Post, using the concept of the limited good: “The anthropologist George Foster coined the term ‘limited good’ in 1965 to describe Mexican peasants who believed that the good things in life — money and good fortune — were in short supply and beyond their capacity to capture and fully enjoy. As a consequence, these peasants did not pursue new opportunities and lost their ability to dream about a different life. My sense is that the notion of the limited good should not be restricted to the Mexican peasants…Belief in the limited good has long been part of mainstream American society…politicians like Rick Scott have repeatedly tapped into these sentiments for political gain. My students, many of whom come from families of modest means, feel the pressure of the limited good. Their parents want them to major in business, accounting, or computer science — degrees that will lead to good well-paying jobs. Who can fault them for wanting what’s best for their kids. And yet many of my students, who have little or no interest in accounting, end up learning how to do audits instead of following their passion into anthropology, history or psychology.”

Strong support for a liberal arts education comes from the president of Arizona State University who argues in Slate magazine that Governor Scott’s emphasis on practical education is short-sighted: “It is critically important that students develop the ability to move from subject to subject and problem to problem, and from environment to environment and opportunity to opportunity, in ways that unleash and utilize their innate capacities and creative potential. Such mental agility will allow them to establish new business enterprises, scientific or technological capabilities, social initiatives, and creative endeavors in every sector of the economy. It may come as a surprise to Gov. Scott, but the perpetual innovation that drives our economy could even be inspired by anthropologists.”

Governor Scott both backpedaled and bit back. At a talk this past week, he said that he “loves anthropology, don’t you know”.

At the same time, he has pressed state-funded universities to provide detailed information to him about where Florida college graduates are finding jobs, how much they earn, and how much university officials are being paid: “I’d like to understand why our universities cost what they cost,” Scott said Wednesday during an interview in Gainesville. Scott said that “The growing jobs in our state over the next 10 years are going to be science, technology, engineering and math degree jobs.” He asked, “What percentage of our graduates are in those areas? How are we promoting that? What’s our success? Is it going up? Is it going down?” Scott sent a letter on October 13 to Florida’s 11 state university presidents with 17 requests for data, surveys and other information including:

– Job descriptions, total wages, number of courses instructed and “measurable goals” for the 50 highest-paid employees at each university for each of the past three years.

– Costs and revenues per program from the past decade.

– A list of the required classes for undergraduates.

Scott has implemented a fee for public record requests to his own office.

Continue reading “Anthro in the news 10/24/11” →

• Anthro roots of Occupy Wall Street movement
According to an article in the Chronicle for Higher Education, Occupy Wall Street’s most defining characteristics are rooted in the scholarship of anarchism and, specifically, in an ethnography of central Madagascar by cultural anthropologist David Graeber. Graeber holds the position of Reader in Social Anthropology at Goldsmiths, University of London. He transplanted the lessons he learned in Madagascar to the globalism protests in the late 1990s in which he participated, and which some scholars say are the clearest antecedent, in spirit, to Occupy Wall Street.

• Anthro under attack by Florida governor
Blogger’s note: since Florida governor Rick Scott’s negative remarks about the uselessness of an anthropology degree hit the media, a wave of responses have appeared. I hope a sister blog will do a “round-up” and analysis. This post provides links to the governor’s statement and just a few follow-ups.

The Herald-Tribune reported on Monday, October 10, that governor Rick Scott believes that anthropology programs do not contribute to Florida’s economy, and he wants to cut state funding for them. Scott is quoted as saying: “If I’m going to take money from a citizen to put into education then I’m going to take that money to create jobs…So I want that money to go to degrees where people can get jobs in this state…Is it a vital interest of the state to have more anthropologists? I don’t think so.”

It did not take long for the media to learn that Governor Scott may have singled out anthropology degrees as job market losers because he had “inside knowledge.” His daughter, Jordan Kandah, has an anthropology degree from Virginia’s College of William and Mary. Kandah did not go to work in the field of anthropology. She was a special education teacher before enrolling recently in a Masters of Business Administration program.

The Atlantic joined in the discussion with commentary about how useful, in fact, an anthropology degree can be for jobs in U.S. security operations overseas and business in the U.S.: “The real irony of Governor Scott’s remarks is that anthropology can be so practical that it even makes many anthropologists uneasy, as in the Defense Department’s Human Terrain Program, condemned as unethical by a commission of the American Anthropological Association (AAA) in 2009. But that leaves many other business-oriented careers for anthropologists as promoted by the American Anthropological Association itself. Anthropologists have been helping improve Silicon Valley and could no doubt do the same for Florida. ”

• Pay for the funeral of organ-donators
An article in the The Guardian (London) reports on the recommendations of the Nuffield Council on Bioethics, a medical ethics think tank in the U.K. Dame Marilyn Strathern, professor emeritus of social anthropology at Cambridge University, chairs the committee. She is quoted as saying: “Paying for the funeral of organ donors would be ethically justified…it would be a form of recognition from society. We think a pilot scheme to test the public response to the idea is worth trying.” The official response, so far is: nice idea but not likely.

Continue reading “Anthro in the news 10/17/11” →