FYI, or, The Squabbling of Anthropology Hits the Big Time

John - Reference (JSTEVENS@DELPHINUS.LIB.UMB.EDU)
Sat, 22 Jul 1995 15:47:38 EDT

Anyone who's interested in the fracas over the identity of the
*American Anthropologist* might be interested in an article in the
"Inside Publishing" section of the latest *Lingua Franca*
(July/August 1995). The writer discusses a lot of the issues covered
in this forum when the new format emerged, but also discusses a bit
of pre-Tedlock history (like the abysmal subscriber rate) and the
fact that it seems like a lot of folks like the new *AA*
(subscriptions are up). Of course, he also highlights the infamous
divisiveness and squabbling that seem to form a lot of folks' images
of contemporary anthropology. For another example of this, check out
the March/April issue of *LF*, where the Sahlins/Obeyesekere debate
over Captain Cook's death gets covered in the same section.

Given some recent posts on the contentiousness and sniping (granted,
often from one particular source) that have afflicted ANTHRO-L, I
thought that these brief articles might give us all some food for
thought.

Best regards,

John Stevens
UMass Boston/Cornell University