Re: the Salaciousness of Anthropology

Nick Maclaren (nmm1@cus.cam.ac.uk)
16 Aug 1996 21:00:03 GMT

In article <3214E670.E42@best.com>,
Joel and Lynn Gazis-Sax <gazissax@best.com> wrote:
>Mmmmmm! Truly juicy, Danny! Sometime, you should check out
>my page devoted to CEMETERY NUDITY!
>
>Danny wrote:
>>
>> I've wondered why the anthropology archives I maintain (for these
>> newsgroups and the anthro-l list) are so popular. I've just changed to a
>> Web server that allows me to log the referring pages, and the mystery is
>> solved -- just look at these examples of how people find pages in the
>> archives! ...
>>
>> (There are also lots of people searching for things like flink knapping,
>> cultural relativism, infibulation, and other such terms, of course.)

I would appreciate a description of flink knapping, but the recent
attempts at censorship in the UK mean that it is probably unwise for
me to receive such a description by Email :-)

But, more seriously, there is a "Western" tradition of believing that
"primitive" peoples were all into baring their breasts and public sex.
While there is some truth in that (as I can personally witness!), I
feel that a good punishment for excessive salaciousness would be to
be forced to read a certain number of anthropological papers on the
topic!

Nick Maclaren,
University of Cambridge Computer Laboratory,
New Museums Site, Pembroke Street, Cambridge CB2 3QG, England.
Email: nmm1@cam.ac.uk
Tel.: +44 1223 334761 Fax: +44 1223 334679