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Truth, kids and Socrates
Read, Dwight ANTHRO (Read@ANTHRO.SSCNET.UCLA.EDU)
Mon, 22 Apr 1996 01:21:00 PDT
McCreery replies:
"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.*"
Note that McCreery uses the qualifiers: "I suspect", "I speculate". His
suspicions and speculatations may very well be insightful,
but they are not a reference to concepts established through anthropology as
a science. My question is still unanswered.
D. Read
READ@ANTHRO.SSCNET.UCLA.EDU
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