read all those ethnographies?

Tracy Brown (tbrown@ACPUB.DUKE.EDU)
Tue, 10 May 1994 13:24:24 -0400

In response to D. Read's comments, I certainly did not mean to imply that
people simply choose what they will accept and reject of their culture.
That is why I asked at the end of my post (not reproduced in Read's
response) how it is coercion and choice become intertwined. Read seems to
be arguing that there is no choice on the part of individuals involved (see d.
st. christian's interpretation of his post) -- which is, I would think,
also an unsupportable statement. The explanation for why people do
unhealthy things can, in the end, be attributed to both choice and
coercion. The trick is (for social scientists anyway) to explain this
seemingly contradictory mixture in a sensitive and balanced manner. I
simpy don't buy the idea that people are, in the end, duped; that they
live their lives out in complete false consciousness.
Tracy Brown