Comments on: Village on the Edge

By: Rex

Rex — Tue, 02 May 2006 21:53:44 +0000

Michael —

tenkyu tumas. I have a few Sepik-related questions for you and if notice this contact I was wondering if you could email me so we could talk off the blog?

lukim,
-R

By: Michael French Smith

Michael French Smith — Tue, 02 May 2006 20:50:00 +0000

Rex,

I googled myself the other day and came across your site and the postings on “Village on the Edge”. I’m glad you liked it and – from my point of view – for the right reasons. What you said I was trying to do is just what I was trying to do, and I’m glad when that comes through clearly. It was fun to write. You observe that years of practice writing reports for consulting clients was good for my prose. At least as good for my prose – in this book and the pervious one – has been not having to worry about pleasing the people who hand out raises and promotions in the ivy covered halls. Don’t get me wrong, I love those halls; but they aren’t the place to learn to write gracefully (something on which I keep working). Anyway, glad to see that people are reading “VoTE” and enjoying it.

MFS

By: Ozma

Ozma — Thu, 20 Apr 2006 15:30:44 +0000

isn’t that my job? 😉

By: Rex

Rex — Wed, 19 Apr 2006 22:03:54 +0000

Really? Gosh. I didn’t think it was a masterpiece. However I did think it really knew what it was trying to do, and did it very well. Maybe someone who read it and didn’t like it should write a rebuttal? Or maybe I should write areally _negative_ review of a book next ;?)

By: Ozma

Ozma — Wed, 19 Apr 2006 20:40:12 +0000

wow, Rex, that’s the kind of book review of which I am sure all authors dream. it makes you wanna run out and read the ethnography post-haste.

By: Rex

Rex — Wed, 19 Apr 2006 04:09:30 +0000

John — I think Michael’s book will really appeal to you, judging from your comments on SM.

By: John McCreery

John McCreery — Wed, 19 Apr 2006 03:37:34 +0000

Thanks, guys. I’ve just gone on an Amazon orgy and ordered everything you’ve mentioned.

By: Rex

Rex — Wed, 19 Apr 2006 01:37:42 +0000

Thanks Dave! I second the vote of Mintz and Hutchinson (although the Hutchinson is probably a bit much for intro classes). However I’d not heard of Allen’s book — South America is my weakest area. It’s great to have the reccomendation of her book and I’ll check it out for sure!

By: Dave G.

Dave G. — Tue, 18 Apr 2006 23:45:05 +0000

There are a couple of other good recent ethnographies that address social change and modernity by comparing two or more field visits several years apart. I'm thinking particularly of Sharon Hutchinson's Nuer Dilemmas and a new edition of Catherine Allen's The Hold Life Has. My favorite, written in plain language with lots of personal notes and a great sense of history, remains Sidney Mintz's Worker in the Cane.