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Declaration.....
Thomas McCormack (TOMITS@AOL.COM)
Thu, 2 Mar 1995 15:48:12 -0500
concerns of a group of informants, and his most vocal detractors prove his
point for him.
No one of those who first mount the attack bother to read and understand
what the post is. They merely label it "crap" and proceed to attack him
personally. He then makes the point that the Declaration is not about HIM,
but about the INFORMANTS and WHAT THEY SAID, and that WHAT THEY SAID, AND
SAY, may be important, not only as a revelation of their habitus but for what
it may reveal about neo/post colonialist practices in the academy. And reveal
it does!
It reveals some half-assed argument that Johnson is really the author,
if we can only distort the meaning of "author" sufficiently. Laughable, but
chilling that it's seriously advanced only to conceal ineptitude and the
resulting loss of face. It reveals another half-assed (and colonialist)
argument that the declaration is still crap because it is not sufficiently
grounded in Western academic discourse. (Egad, she must be something in the
field.) And it reveals those self-proclaimed defenders of the faith (you
know, those same ones who so prominently display the Helping Hand when it's
not busy patting their backs) trotting out that old standby, the argument
that the poor natives who authored the declaration must not know any better
than to be the tools of some malignant cancer gnawing at the very bowels of
truth. How's that for colonialist discourse?
I am only heartened that Mr. Johnson continues his fieldwork amongst the
anthropologists. While he may not change their minds, or even be trying to,
he does indeed reveal them for what they are.
Thomas A. McCormack
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