There are some anthropological papers that really encapsulate the essence of the discipline. They have exactly the right combination of theoretical analysis and ethnographic contextualisation. A critical component of good anthropology is that the insight comes, is borne from, the fieldwork and so any good paper needs to bring the reader on that same journey.
All good papers need an 'Ah Ha' moment when the reader 'clicks' and understands the argument or rationale being outlined.
Strathern is particularly gifted at providing a good Ah Ha moment. While her texts can be turgid and highly complex with arguments within arguments, you stay reading to the end to see how she is going to get out of this little conundrum this time. She is also very good at reframing and providing pithy quotes that encapsulate arguments. Here she takes Sahlins' analysis of Cook's death at the hands of the Hawaiians and extends his argument that the Hawaiians acted logically within their own cultural understanding of Cook's return to the island with a broken mast: "A cultural event is thus perpetually created out of a natural happening" (1990:160). Things occur; people make sense of them. Sahlins provided the first Ah Ha and then Strathern extended it. Anthropological fun...
No comments:
Post a Comment