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What is scholarly discussion?
Steve Mizrach (SEEKER1@NERVM.NERDC.UFL.EDU)
Sun, 16 Jan 1994 13:18:13 -0500
many
have (repeatedly) asked about it.
"Is it not proper in scholarly discussion to provide one's
accreditation, etc., etc.?"
It might be 'proper,' as in culturally normative (we understand
those terms, correct), but then here I am being deliberately
countercultural.
I believe that providing this information moves away from the
discussion of ideas to the discussion of credentials. Though no specific
parties on this list have been guilty of this, I have seen it elsewhere. My
ideas should matter regardless of what university I belong to (although my
signature does make this apparent), what level of educational status I have
attained, which scholars I am associating with, or what particular
programme within anthropology I am operating within.
If I was a junior high student, it shouldn't matter. Since I
consider this information irrelevant, as well as information pertaining to
factors irrelevant to the consideration of ideas (gender, race, ethnicity,
and religion, many of which are inferrable by personal name), I do not
provide this information.
In fact, the requirement for this information serves only as an
obstacle to access to the list, and a limitation on privacy. If I'm going
to be flamed or receive death threats (this has happened on other lists,
not this one) I would rather that they not know my real name.
So, unless requested to change my .sig file by the
moderator/listowner, it will remain as it is, providing only the
information that I wish to provide publicly (or could be inferred from the
mailheader), and a quote that I find particularly relevant.
Needless to say, if I wanted to, I could be even more deliberate in
my efforts to maintain anonymity, and use a remailer to disguise the origin
of these messages. Then I could leave everyone guessing. Am I Clifford
Geertz? Dan Foss? Doctress Neutopia? The angry ghost of Malinowski? But
that's not my goal.
I believe that only Reed D Riner has grasped the true significance
of this matter... academia appears to be one of the few subcultures which
is so stubbornly resistant to change.
Seeker1 [@Nervm.Nerdc.Ufl.Edu] (real info available on request)
Anthropologist, Cybernaut, PoMoDemite, Noetician, Situationiste, et al.
University of Florida, Gainesville, Cosmic Nexus of the Universal Matrix
"'Tis an ill wind that blows no minds!" --Malaclypse the Younger
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