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Re: Anthropology and science
Robert Johnson (johnsorl@COLORADO.EDU)
Thu, 7 Sep 1995 10:38:18 -0600
On Tue, 5 Sep 1995, Michael Thomas Carson wrote:
> Wow. Nick Coudran's points were great regarding anthropology as a
> science. I won't reproduce his entire message here, but I will pick up
> where he left off. He posed the question of what anthropologists could
> do to predict human behavior. The ability to predict is very likely
> linked to the ability to be a science. This is an excellent point,
> expanding upon the observation that research results must be repeatable
> in order to be verified.
Anthropologists who have engaged in military research have rarely
had the luxury of "repeatable" results, unless of course their's
is a campaign of sustainable terror. There has never been much
problem with verification of these results and their inclusion into
grey literature.
I am currently devoting an entire section in my series of essays
on anthropological complicity in warfare involving indigenous peoples
which will be published under the title
CANONS OF THE POSTCOLONIAL.
Robert Johnson
Liberation
Anthropology
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