Re: Craftsperson/reaction
Roberta Astroff (rastroff@vms.cis.pitt.edu)
Wed, 5 Feb 1992 10:42:00 EST
A recent reply about looking for a Native craftsperson for an anthropology
student to interview stated "it is unfortuante when racism gets in the way
fo education from either direction". However, we cannot ignore the power
relations in the production of knowledge that traditional anthropology has
embodied. As someone said a long time ago, we study the poor (in sociology(
rather than the rich because it is easier to intrude on the lives of the
poor. There are many craftspeople in this country of all ethnic and racial
backgrounds -- why is this student hunting for a Native American craftsperson?
Is the study about crafts in a (post)modern age? What are the assumptions
that made this student target a Native American craftsperson? Contemporary
critical anthrpology is turning its focus to the anthropologists themselves,
and to the populations who have produced the anthrpologists. The reply
from Nancy ignores the fact that it is mostly Euroamerican antrhopologists
studying the "Other." How is making this social structure visible racism?
Why is protesting this structure of knowledge production racism?
Roberta Astroff