The Chronicle: Colloquy: Responses

COLLOQUY
THE QUESTION
RESPONSES
BACKGROUND

Have anthropologists abandoned the roots of their discipline to focus on trendy postmodern issues?

The most recent responses appear first

"The essay raises vital points and on the whole I fully agree with Mr. Thu's call for more work to be done with regard to food..."

: -- Mark Philip Davies, Undergraduate, University of Wales, Swansea (posted 3/22, 11:30 a.m., E.S.T.)

"Just happened across this article: I have taught Wendell Berry's 'Unsettling of America: Culture and Agriculture' and find it..."

: -- George T. Karnezis, Associate prof. English, North Central College (posted 5/28, 3:57 p.m., E.D.T.)

"As an economist engaged in the study of comparative systems..."

: -- Chip Poirot, Ph.D., Unafilliated (posted 5/12, 4:15 p.m., E.D.T.)

"While I support Kendall Thu's call for anthropologists to..."

: -- Bill Maurer, Asst. Prof., Anthro., Univ. of California at Irvine (posted 5/11, 5:10 p.m., E.D.T.)

"I agree with much of what Thu says but I disagree there is some sort of incompatibility between studying global corporations etc...."

: -- Bob Pokrant, Dr. and Senior Lecturer in Anthropology, School of Social Sciences and Asian Languages, Curtin university of Technology, Perth, WA, Australia (posted 5/6, 12:35 p.m., E.D.T.)

"I get the impression via some of my students that the postmodern world is attempting to deny that the Enlightenment ever occurred;..."

: -- Dr. Jay Hall, Dept. of Anthropology/Archaeology & Sociology, University of Queensland (posted 5/6, 12 p.m., E.D.T.)

"Cheers for Kendall! Up with agricultural anthropology!..."

: -- John Lozier, Ph.D., Research Assistant, Forage Extension, West Virginia University (posted 5/4, 5:33 p.m., E.D.T.)

"As an acquiring editor, I must applaud Professor Thu's call for more grounded and practical anthropological studies..."

: -- David Myers, Social Sciences Editor, Rutgers University Press (posted 5/4, 12:30 p.m., E.D.T.)

"Mr. Thu makes the right observations about some of our anthropological colleagues who are greatly involved and perhaps, obsessed, in discussions of postmodernism..."

: -- Luis Carmelo L. Buenaventura, Ph.D. (Cand), Graduate Student, Department of Anthropology, College of Social Sciences and Philosophy (CSSP), University of the Philippines-Diliman, Quezon City, Metro Manila, Philippines (posted 5/4, 9:55 a.m., E.D.T.)

"Kendall Thu's article is yet another example of the postmodernism-is-ruining-the-field genre..."

: -- John Norvell, Ph.D. candidate, Anthropology, Cornell University (posted 5/3, 3 p.m., E.D.T.)

"I am flattered and appreciative that a number of people took time to respond to my viewpoint piece..."

: -- Kendall Thu, Cultural Anthropologist, University of Iowa (posted 5/3, 1:45 p.m., E.D.T.)

"I am not an anthropologist by training..."

: --Thomas Dapice, entrepreneur (posted 5/3, 1:40 p.m., E.D.T.)

"Cultural anthropology itself is to blame for the drift into the irrelevant confines of Modern Language Association jargon..."

: --Edmond Keenan Wynn, Writer (posted 5/3, 1:33 p.m., E.D.T.)

"There is no question that anthropology has become increasingly irrelevant to contemporary policy and politics..."

: -- E. Paul Durrenberger, Professor of Anthropology, Penn State (posted 4/30, 5:25 p.m., E.D.T.)

"We cannot put food production on a straight edge spectrum and depart from it and move on to other topics when researching..."

: -- Joseph J. Vella, MA Anthropology (Middle Eastern Countries) (posted 4/30, 5:15 p.m., E.D.T.)

"The subject of the article is tremendously important; it has to do with the corporatization of life in this earth and in space,..."

: -- Leon Levitt, Professor of Business & Professional Ethics (posted 4/30, 11:45 a.m., E.D.T.)

"Although I agree fully with Mr. Thu's concerns about jargon-laden essays and 'mouthtalk,'..."

: -- Clyde Ellis, Assistant Professor of History, Elon College (posted 4/30, 10:28 a.m., E.D.T.)

"I'd recommend John Langston Gwaltney's study, Drylongso: A Self-Portrait of Black America (Random House, 1980), for a stimulating example of..."

: -- David G. Whiteis, Indiana-Purdue University at Ft. Wayne (posted 4/28, 12:06 p.m., E.D.T.)

"I found Professor Thu's article interesting, and, yes, seeing the problems he discusses treated by more anthropologists..."

: -- Wade Tarzia, Instructor, Naugatuck Community College (posted 4/27, 2:12 p.m., E.D.T.)

"I agree completely with Professor Thu's discussion of the importance of anthropological studies..."

: -- Kathleen Fine-Dare, Professor of Anthropology & Women's Studies, Fort Lewis College, Durango CO (posted 4/27, 11:45 a.m., E.D.T.)

"Thanks to David Gordon, Andrew Habermacher, John McCreery, and Tom Riley for the first of what I hope will be..."

: -- Kendall Thu, Cultural Anthropologist, University of Iowa (posted 4/26, 4:18 p.m., E.D.T.)

"Mr. Thu is right about the importance of the means of production and their loci,..."

: -- Tom Riley, Dean, College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences, North Dakota State University (posted 4/26, 1:55 p.m., E.D.T.)

"The call for anthropology to be more clearly written and more relevant to global political and economic issues..."

: -- John L. McCreery, Lecturer, Sophia University, Tokyo (posted 4/26, 9:45 a.m., E.D.T.)

"I have taught anthropology to undergraduates for several decades..."

: -- Andrew Habermacher, Professor, Prince George's Community College (posted 4/26, 9:35 a.m., E.D.T.)

"It sounds like the essay is not so much about cultural anthropologists investigating 'trendy' postmodern issues,..."

: -- David Gordon, Social Anthropologist: University of St. Andrews (posted 4/26, 9:20 a.m., E.D.T.)