Re: I'm a bit troubled

wilkr (wilkr@INDIANA.EDU)
Sat, 8 Oct 1994 16:28:38 -0500

I would like to agree with Mike Leiber. Both Tedlocks, who apparently do
not read anthro-l, spoke with me Friday. They said they had received many
complimentary letters and calls about their first issue of the journal.
But so far nobody with critical comments had written to them. Instead
they felt like there was a lynch mob forming, but without engaging them
in dialog or asking for explanations first.

I suggest that people with comments and critiques do what Lieber
suggests. Lets have debate and discussion first. Perhaps more than one
issue needs to come out. We need to hear from principles themselves (the
people who have articles sent back without review) instead of second-hand
accounts about unnamed people. Otherwise we are engaging in gossip.

Nevertheless, Anthro-l is the best and only forum where we can discuss
these issues, without waiting for the lengthy process of publication
of letters in the AA newsletter. I do not in any way want to
discourage commentary. As I said previously, I did not like the line-up
of papers in the last issue, but I did like the format change. Of course,
I did not like the line-up of papers in many of the issues produced by
previous editors either.

Richard Wilk
Anthropology Dept. 812-855-8162 (voice) Indiana University
812-855-4358 (fax) Bloomington, IN 47405