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--- 1002:2022:1.2 [2022/07/19 01:08] – external edit 127.0.0.1
+++ 1002:2022:1.2 [2022/07/31 21:22] (current) – [Anthropology as “ruthless criticism” (//rücksichtslose Kritik//)] Ryan Schram (admin)
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 **Main reading:** Marx ([1843] 1978)
+===== Anthropology is not the solution to anyone’s problems =====
+I argue that the world’s biggest problems are global in nature.
+I hope that anthropologists are part of finding solutions, but not because anthropology has solutions to complex problems.
+**Anthropologists are not experts. They are the enemy of expertise.**
+Anthropology does not say there are no answers, though. That would be truly hopeless.
+Anthropologists always start from the assumption that
+  - we don’t know everything, and
+  - other people know things we don’t, and see things from their own perspectives.
+Hence, there is always more to learn, and there are always new perspectives to consider. For that reason, **anthropology is an exercise in hope.**
+===== Anthropology in an unequal world =====
+Anthropology is not naive. The world is [[https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/FUBAR#Adjective|FUBAR]].
+The world today is very unequal in several respects. It may seem like this a permanent reality.
+Do you agree? What’s an example of inequality that you think is important.
+===== Anthropology as “ruthless criticism” (rücksichtslose Kritik) =====
+Anthropology descends from a long tradition of critical thought.
+Consider the ideas of “the young [[:Karl Marx|Marx]]”, who believed he and his fellow radicals would change the world with critique (//Kritik//):
+**“[A social reformer is] compelled to confess to himself that he has no clear conception of what the future should be. That, however, is just the advantage of the new trend: that we do not attempt dogmatically to prefigure the future, but want to find the new world only through criticism [//Kritik//] of the old.”** (Marx [1843] 1978, 13)
+**“[W]e realize all the more clearly what we have to accomplish in the present—l am speaking of a ruthless criticism [//rücksichtslose Kritik//] of everything existing, ruthless in two senses: The criticism must not be afraid of its own conclusions, nor of conflict with the powers that be.”** (Marx [1843] 1978, 13)
+===== How do anthropologists think? =====
+An anthropologist begins by listening in a special sense.
+Thinking as an anthropologist means:
+  * Assuming that people **learn** how to be who they are.
+  * Seeing the **larger context** for any and every aspect of people’s behavior, experiences, thoughts, feelings and conditions.
+  * Immersing yourself in another way of life **as a system**.
+===== Language lessons =====
+How many of you have ever learned a language that was not spoken at home?
+How long does it take to learn a new language?
+Do you think you could ever learn to forget your first language? Why or why not?
+Socialization is a technical term for a profound idea: We have been assimilated
 ===== References and further reading =====
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