Comments on: The Barth Solution

By: df

df — Wed, 20 Sep 2006 03:55:43 +0000

Very interesting…I had had a similar conversation with a friend from grad school a few years back when I was designing a contemporary theory course & we had both concluded that if we were going to do it with a single author, Fredrik Barth would definitely be the one.

I am teaching Barth’s essay in Fox and King, _Anthropology Beyond Culture_ (2002) in my intro. class tomorrow — IMHO there is no more succinct and readable statement of the many contradictions in the concept of culture.

By: ckelty

ckelty — Sun, 17 Sep 2006 01:17:17 +0000

how about a William Vollman option for people want some sex with their anthropology and who are not insomniacs ;)

By: Comet Jo

Comet Jo — Sat, 16 Sep 2006 19:52:00 +0000

bq. ethnic group identity is solely a individual rational choice based on maximizing economic and social benefit (“Pathan Identity and Its Maintenance,” in his ed. Ethnic Groups and Boundaries)? um, okay, that’s helped to provide the intellectual ammunition to deny the salience and survival of Indigenous cultures and societies in North America

To be fair, I think the above is an example of the unintended consquences of intentional action (and thus a way to teach Weber by reading Barth?)…but I had the Sahlins solution thought myself. 😉

By: Rex

Rex — Sat, 16 Sep 2006 17:54:53 +0000

Wow, I wasn’t expecting a lot of venom over Barth. But actually proposing a Sahlins solution instead does raise an interesting question: if yo ucould choose just one…

By: rola

rola — Sat, 16 Sep 2006 15:46:16 +0000

sure, we could use the Barth solution if we’re willing to accept the sheer idiocy of one of anthropologist’s most prominent proponents of liberalism — ethnic group identity is solely a individual rational choice based on maximizing economic and social benefit (“Pathan Identity and Its Maintenance,” in his ed. Ethnic Groups and Boundaries)? um, okay, that’s helped to provide the intellectual ammunition to deny the salience and survival of Indigenous cultures and societies in North America (i.e., the welfare state has made it profitable to be Indigenous, so people will choose that as an identity for personal gain rather than accepting their position in the wider polity…let’s think about that: people will choose to be marginalised and discriminated against because there’s federal money in it). he’s one of those scholars whose perspectives people use / parrot without necessarily knowing where it comes from (it’s pretty common in non-Indigenous commentary on Indigenous groups here in Canada, including among anthros).

of course there’s always the Sahlins Solution; i had one prof who said somewhat facetiously that the history of anthro theory can be studied through his career: evolutionism, structuralism, the turn to language, etc.