into the fray

PATSY EVANS (PATSY@AAA.MHS.COMPUSERVE.COM)
Fri, 9 Feb 1996 11:01:07 EST

"Anthropology in Public": which debates issues affecting many of us
nonacademics -- the crux of which is the ultimate personal dilemma of
those of us who study anthropology -- what to do to earn a living after
one is done with schooling. Someone posted on arch-l yesterday that
her/his (?) W-2 was for $12,000+ for field archaeology. I understand...
I've drastically reduced my wages from my preanthro career... The
recent Chronicle of Higher Ed highlights Katherine Newman going to
Harvard's Kennedy School along with Christopher Jencks et al -- to
present more comprehensive pictures of inequality in America, the
wedding of the qualitative and quantitative. She was highlighted last
night on NPR, as an anthropologist. The jobs except for a lucky few each
year who get academic jobs (about 75 out of 300-400 new PhDs) are
outside the academy. If the academy can't face where it's grads are
going, they will get downsized with the rest of America/ So the
tension between the applied and the academic -- presented in the article
by John Bennett and commentaries following, as well as the last review
in the edition , about Forman's Diagnosing America -- is important to
understand. and discuss... and discuss... like maybe on anthro-l???

Also, the summary of the Herrnstein and Murray's Bell Curve and reviews
by Alland, Blakey, Brace, Goodman, Molnar, Rushton, Sarich, & Smedley is
an important piece and useful for people having to talk about it to
classes. (I xeroxed and mailed a copy to a lowly paid starving adjunct
colleague who was in grad school with me -- we often joke about who's the
luckiest -- her teaching part time with no benefits or me who for
5,890,234,239 reasons can never teach.)

Now: for the fractious side of things --

Those of you who have software which can delete lines of the cited
message to which you are trying to respond: even if you have to manually
delete the preceding message, line by line by line, you ought to take the
time to perfect that technique. That is directed at many, many, many of
you, not anyone in particular.

And -- IMHO --
Before we all go through litanies of who we are and our legitimate claims
towards a voice, I am an African American of afro scots paumaunkee
heritage. I know much about many anthropologists, as my work requires
that I know who's who. I have many colleagues and friends and loved ones
who come from all around the globe, who call themselves all sorts of
things... I am no one's apologist and I take the liberty to argue myself
from time to time. I have been flamed well enough myself. Dr. Rohrlich
is a retired professor of anthropology who is affiliated with George
Washington University, with whom I have participated on a panel at the 94
meeting and who attended a reception/discussion for minority graduate
students that I held this fall at the Annual meeting. I saw her last
night in Washington leaving the grocery store and was too far away to
yell and gesture. She and I often disagree. I will always respect her
and her right to say things. I object to people flaming, berating and
"dissing" seniors -- especially one who has worked as hard and
productively in her long career as Dr. R did.

Chill out, folks. Or has the mean spirited mania of the niggardly
nineties struck here too? Each person for themselves and their
self-aggrandizement? I was gone and now I'm back and wondering if I
should've returned!

Patsy Evans
Director, Minority Affairs
American Anthropological Association
703/528-1902, ext. 3024; FAX 703/528-3546
e-mail: patsy@AAA.MHS.compuserve.com