Anthropologists in universities across the country are experiencing an unprecedented civil war over the very foundation of their field. The American Anthropological Association has decided to drop the word “science” from a associational statement — triggering outcries from science-oriented faculty who have long opposed the growth of anthropologists who study race, ethnicity, and gender from a more political perspective.
Physical anthropologists have struggled against what they viewed as a takeover of their field by faculty who often advocate for native peoples and study issues like ethnicity and gender that often fall under political science. The fight has been . . . well . . . tribal.
The association has long defined itself at advancing “anthropology as the science that studies humankind in all its aspects.” Now it proclaims “the purposes of the association shall be to advance public understanding of humankind in all its aspects.”
Peter Peregrine, president of the Society for Anthropological Sciences, put the change in zoological terms (a neutral choice): “Even if the board goes back to the old wording, the cat’s out of the bag and is running around clawing up the furniture.”
Source: NY Times
Jonathan Turley
Blouise,
What school? Sounds like it has some great offerings…
eniobob,
Thanks for the link…
anon nurse,
This semester he took a class entitled “Conspiracy Theories” … it was all he could talk about during our last family dinner.
Blouise:
““How Historians Reinvent America; Revolutionary War -Present Day”. ”
That sounds very interesting.
anon nurse:
Heres that whole link:
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article15280.htm
Blouise,
…and for that. Perhaps he’ll write some articles for the Turley blog… 🙂
Sounds like an interesting class…
eniobob,
My grandson is signed up for a class next semester called “How Historians Reinvent America; Revolutionary War -Present Day”.
I suspect he’s going to be learning a lot.
eniobob, thanks for that…
Blouise:
A passage from “dumbing down of america” on education:
“Brainwash Education
The education system in America has been carefully eroded over the course of time, altered in such a way as to make creative and curious children barren and submissive adults indifferent to the world around them. The system now in place begins robbing a child’s ability to think for himself or herself from the very start of the education process. The class structure itself eliminates individuality, personality and energetic ability, as one teacher must educate many students competing for attention. It is here when talents that need to be discovered get ambushed instead. Yet with a class structure that has endured for decades, the child must become part of the whole, learning from books laced with government and/or corporate propaganda.
In many school districts, mostly poor ones strapped for cash, books can be dozens of years old, lacking modern thought or progress. Many books are tools created by entities with special interests that have as a purpose the teaching of their ideology or the furthering of their goals. The absurd teaching of creationism is one such example. Many corporations now create and donate books to school districts that contain references and examples to their brand names and product descriptions. Even in school children cannot escape the growing omnipresence of the corporate Leviathan which thirsts to program the innocent the way it sees fit.
Indeed, the young mind is needlessly brainwashed with a history of a nation that in many instances contradicts and even subverts the true historical reality of the United States. Only the ‘good’ that America has fostered during its rapid and short rise is taught, without ever dealing with the requisite bad inherent in an Empire that has laid claim to land and man during years of brutal conquest, both militarily and economically. Glossing over national heroes, mythifying them into deities and transforming them into perfect human beings is the role of the school book, brainwashing the young to a fictional perfection when reality begs to differ. Yet humanity must be balanced and its reality etched in stone so that future generations learn the human condition as well as its civilization.
The genocide of indigenous Americans is whitewashed; the slavery of blacks that lasted hundreds of years, oftentimes suffering barbaric treatment at the hands of their white masters is easily covered up in a few paragraphs, deceiving readers to the true horrors their ancestors committed or suffered. The subservient role women were placed under for centuries is hardly mentioned, and the great civil rights movement that helped change history for the better never gets the coverage it deserves.
The war crimes and crimes against humanity America has perpetrated worldwide to millions of anonymous people under the rubric of freedom and democracy is never mentioned, rather, they are sugarcoated and glamorized, serving as examples of America’s ‘great history.’ Also, the corrosive and damaging effects of American capitalism disguised as democracy that has condemned untold millions to the dustbins of history is manipulated to look like a chivalrous attempt to save lives and free nations.
Brainwashing unquestioned patriotism into our young one’s minds government controlled education furthers the squashing of dissent and the questioning of our sovereign’s motives. We are conditioned that our elected leaders are gods walking among men, to be trusted and never to be questioned. Their intentions are always noble, their reasoning pure. Dissent and debate, protest and curiosity are seen not as patriotic manifestations of an informed citizenry but rather as an alien afterthought not worthy of nationalistic pride.
The ingraining of loyalty to flag and country, even when committing evil worldwide, is to be allowed to continue, eventually becoming the means by which the state is allowed to declare war, economic genocide and market colonialism, without so much as a whisper from its constituency. The elite therefore bask in the glow of the radiant bean called patriotic fervor, indoctrinated from childhood, lasting until death.
Preaching the noble deeds yet hiding or disguising the evil ingrained in empire building serves only to alter history and manipulate the young, eroding our future in the process. To understand humanity in past, present and future an entire history must be taught, both good and bad, thereby creating in our future citizens the ability to grow wise to the mistakes of times past in order to comprehend the ever-changing and oftentimes complex conditions of the present. To not teach the truth of what has come before is to leave behind the keys to unlocking the door of the human condition, essentially condemning our children into repeating the errors that continue to bear witness to unnecessary suffering, death, destruction, violence and war.
The fruits of our past mistakes can be seen in our history; the essence of the human condition lies written for all to see. American education serves no purpose if the result of its actions leads to a replay of years gone by; it becomes an exercise in futility when our future repeats the blunders of their ancestors and the follies of those who once led.
Brainwash education is the means to an end, a device that entraps rather than make free. It is a valuable tool to exert hegemony over the populace. When begun from the first years of youth, becoming attached and most difficult to extract, brainwashing to suit the state and the elite’s goals is a dangerous device. When combined with the 9/11’s of history, it takes on a life of its own, becoming a Molotov cocktail ready to explode in seething rage. The system would not have it any other way.
Blouise:
As you know it boils down to the administrator of a particular school,in my grandsons case he hit the jackpot in that respect.
Blouise –
You are so right it’s painful. I had a similar experience.
One of my jobs is teaching Girl Scout camp counselors wilderness first aid. Some of the larger camps have 30-40 counselors, generally college-age, often from Europe or Asia.
One 23 year-old American counselor from Wisconsin was comparing notes with others about her church group trip to Rome. One of her comments hit me so hard I almost choked on my chili.
“I just don’t see what the big deal is about the Sistine Chapel. All of the churches in my town are a lot bigger.”
Ugghh.
I think Buddha hit the nail on the head – a large number of Republicans are unsuited to scientific pursuits due to either a willful disregard for the facts or a lack of sufficient intellectual curiosity to discover the facts for themselves. While politics has never been a big topic of discussion amongst most of my scientific colleagues, I’ve known only a handful that were conservatives. There is a sure-fire strategy to create more Republican and conservative scientists – start basing policy on objective facts and unbiased analysis. Unfortunately, basing their arguments on the scientific method would be a disaster for the Republicans politically – no scientist would suggest returning to the policies that have had such negative results for our country…
eniobob,
Isn’t it great to see actual education at work in our public schools. (statement, not a question)
Here the children are encouraged to reach out, seek additional experiences in every class and are awarded extra credit points for doing so. Teachers are the sole arbiter in determining whether or not the extra credit will be granted and the amount. Students are encouraged to argue their case if they think the teacher has been “stingy”. In many cases the mere preparation for the argument almost always leads to more learning and thus higher extra credit being granted. It’s quite slick. (slick being used in admiration)
Blouise:
My grandson had previous experience in school he just graduated from to go on to high school ,the principal at his school was very innovative not only did they take the trips but they also went camping and they had a community outreach course which took them to homeless centers and other parts of society which some may never see.
I have been hearing this “dumbing down” talk for decades and I have no doubt there is much truth to the matter yet here, in my district, in spite of all the time spent on ridiculous mandated testing, the education of the children has, in my opinion, improved. I say this after comparing the education my children received to the education my grandchildren received. All of them went to the same schools from kindergarten through twelfth grade.
I helped all of them study, helped with research, reports, papers, etc. I honestly believe that my grandchildren had to work harder and longer at their studies because more was demanded of them overall in every class.
I’m going to give an example to illustrate my claim.
Every eighth grade class takes a three day trip to Washington D.C. My children (2 – took the trip in the 80’s) came home from the trip talking about the sights yes but mainly talking about how much fun they and their friends had in the hotel rooms. They went, they looked, they returned.
My grandchildren (5 – took the trip 1st decade of 2000), on the other hand, each had to pick an historical individual, or a building, or an event and prepare an initial report before leaving and then do “field work” while in D.C. on their chosen subject. They had to, upon returning, finalize the report complete with pictures and present it to the class and know their subject well enough to answer questions from classmates and teachers. Their entire grade for the grading period was that report. (One enterprising young man even secured an interview with a Secret Service sniper who patrolled the roof of the White House. He managed to arrange the interview by writing to our Congressman before leaving. His subject was the White House.)
None of my grandchildren had much to say about the hotel rooms.
I could give similar examples for every subject and make similar comparisons … this was just the easiest.
The point I am trying to make is that I know there are many public school systems that are not meeting the modern educational needs of their students but there are also those that do.
“I wonder what the political orientation of those members might be?
Can anyone tell me?
Never mind, I already know. It isn’t a stretch, we have liberation theology and now we have anthropological liberation based on the works of the “greatest” anthropologist of all time -Karl Marx.”
Seneca,
Be careful or the “bogeyman” might get you. Those evil left wingers, who control “your” world are lurking everywhere.
I”ll add this to the mix also:
Tea Party’s War On Schools
by Dana Goldstein Info
http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2010-12-09/how-the-tea-party-will-destroy-school-reform/?om_rid=NsfYtq&om_mid=_BNAibhB8WIwgXu
by Karin Zeitvogel Karin Zeitvogel – Tue Dec 7, 7:18 am ET
WASHINGTON (AFP) – The United States has fallen from top of the class to average in world education rankings, said a report Tuesday that warned of US economic losses from the trend.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20101207/ts_alt_afp/educationusoecd;_ylt=A0wNdOzVl_5Mdn8AwD1QXs8F;_ylu=X3oDMTJuMmxzOGxtBGFzc2V0A2FmcC8yMDEwMTIwNy9lZHVjYXRpb251c29lY2QEcG9zAzE5BHNlYwN5bl9wYWdpbmF0ZV9zdW1tYXJ5X2xpc3QEc2xrA3VzZmFsbHN0b2F2ZQ–
eniobob,
That was funny.
Sarewitz not only doesn’t understand that it is the responsibility of a political party to make itself attractive to a constituency and not the other way around, but that you have to be in touch with reality to be a scientist.
Daniel Sarewitz demands scientists somehow make Republicans want to be scientists
http://www.salon.com/news/global_warming/index.html?story=/politics/war_room/2010/12/09/no_republican_scientists
“Even if the board goes back to the old wording, the cat’s out of the bag and is running around clawing up the furniture,” he said. -Peter Peregrine
Great imagery and one of those things that I wish I’d said…
Seriously though, we continue to see troubling trends all around and this is another one. In an e-mail to “members”, Peregine (“president of the Society for Anthropological Sciences, an affiliate of the American Anthropological Association”) communicated his view that “the proposed changes would undermine American anthropology.”
Well it makes sense to me as how else would you phrase it as it is after all the study ” of humankind in all its aspects. ” Physical & cultural anthropology is needed as how else does one know their lineage and history of any peoples. Its not politics its the study of ” human kind ” and while true some will see it in a political light and that can be held to anything in the vested study of anything human or not.
I wonder what the political orientation of those members might be?
Can anyone tell me?
Never mind, I already know. It isn’t a stretch, we have liberation theology and now we have anthropological liberation based on the works of the “greatest” anthropologist of all time -Karl Marx.