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Truth, kids and Socrates
John McCreery (JLM@TWICS.COM)
Mon, 22 Apr 1996 15:15:10 +0900
Calo writes (as quoted by Aurin),
"The other provisional model of actions, or system of practices,
is the notion or possibility of dialogue, discussion-- the
possibility of meeting and coming to terms on one or another
issue, even if it is only the issue of defining the terms we
intend to come to terms on, but as equals in an equal game or
dance (leaning toward ritual, actually), and on a neutral site,
where the power is not stacked so much all on one side. This
may be the game/dance/ritual (model, whatever) the West has
been learning, or begun practicing somewhat of late."
(1) Does nobody out there but me remember Socrates standing
in the agora? Like, where, after all, did our notions about
"dialogue" come from? (2) How can anyone in these post-
Edward Said, post-modern times continue to rattle on about
"the West" and "the Other"? Don't we know enough to know
that neither is a viable category?
On Aurin's "vision." Of course. An thropology as vision quest
is a well-established trope in our field. We still require ways to
sort out which individual visions warrant collective action.
Universal toleration born of pervasive skepticism and
overwhelming fear of commitment is a recipe for paralysis in
both scholarship and politics.
On Read's "Is anthropology, as a science, without insight on
what are very real issues in our society, where the issues relate
to topics that are part and parcel of what anthropology has
traditionally studied?" A very good question, indeed.
But wouldn't the primary insight be the need to contextualize
both of the cases in question. Children left uncared for and
isolated will, I suspect, with rare exceptions, suffer
psychological damage. In contemporary society, the central
issue, I speculate, is the anomie caused by overworked parents
or broken famlies *WHEN THE NUCLEAR FAMILY EXISTS
IN ISOLATION AND THERE IS NO WIDER FAMILY OR
COMMUNITY THAT TAKES RESPONSIBILITY FOR
CHILDREN.*
Turning to the second article, "day care" is as slippery a
concept as "religion" or "ideology." My daughter the
Midshipman,was in day care when she was young, but I doubt
that the Toddler Co-op (run by Yale graduate student parents),
Calvin Hill (the day-care center for 3-5 year olds run by the
Yale Child-Development Dept.) and Wakakusa Yochien "Young
Sprouts Kindergarten" in a solidly middle class ward in
Yokohama, were "representative" of what poor, working-class
parents, can find for their children, in the USA, Japan, or
Taiwan (the three places I have lived for any length of
time).Then, of course, there are the centers the Sudanese
govt runs for orphans from the Southern Sudan, where
kids as young as nine are indoctrinated and recruited into
the army....
John McCreery
Yokohama
April 22, 1996
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