Re: Harris

Bruce D. Scott (bds@ipp-garching.mpg.de)
12 May 1995 15:35:24 GMT

This is the last of these "Gil-posts"; I apologise to others who have felt
put out by them. I simply want to document the dishonesty with which I
have been smeared.

In each of these cites, the post excerpt before the ellipsis is complete:

On Date: Sat, 06 May 1995 05:44:09 GMT, in article
Message-ID: <673@landmark.iinet.net.au>, Gil Hardwick wrote:

|> In article <3od1e8$12om@sat.ipp-garching.mpg.de>, Bruce D. Scott
|> (bds@ipp-garching.mpg.de) writes:
|> >
|> >Ob this thread: I would be quite interested, actually, to see some serious
|> >anthropologists give comment. So far it has just been the jealous ranting
|> >club of what Marvin Harris calls the "obscurantists" (although I do confess
|> >I got into it initially to bask in the afterglow of Gil's enlighted
|> >offerings).
|>
|> Marvin Harris? Do you actually mean the paperback writer after the
|> fashion of Von Daniken and Wilson? Please any "serious anthropologist"
|> do give comment. Welcome indeed.

|> [...]

On Date: 8 May 1995 11:07:37 GMT, in article
Message-ID: <3oku1p$ggs@sat.ipp-garching.mpg.de>, I responded:

|> [Posting only to sci.anthropology -- this has nothing to do with cosmology]
|>
|> Gil Hardwick (gil@landmark.iinet.net.au) wrote:
|>
|> : In article <3od1e8$12om@sat.ipp-garching.mpg.de>,
|> : Bruce D. Scott (bds@ipp-garching.mpg.de) writes:
|>
|> : >Ob this thread: I would be quite interested, actually, to see some serious
|> : >anthropologists give comment. So far it has just been the jealous ranting
|> : >club of what Marvin Harris calls the "obscurantists" (although I do confess
|> : >I got into it initially to bask in the afterglow of Gil's enlighted
|> : >offerings).
|>
|> : Marvin Harris? Do you actually mean the paperback writer after the
|> : fashion of Von Daniken and Wilson? Please any "serious anthropologist"
|> : do give comment. Welcome indeed.
|>
|> Please give the series of arguments by which you denigrate Wilson and
|> Harris in this fashion. I hope you don't make the mistake of claiming
|> Harris defends the status quo. He most certainly does not, as several
|> passages in _Cultural Materialism_ and _America Now_ make clear. As a
|> non-anthropologist, _I_ know Harris mainly through his books, but are you
|> as an anthropologist actually claiming he hasn't written several texts and
|> a large number of articles in peer-reviewed journals?

|> [...]

And then on Date: Tue, 09 May 1995 03:14:56 GMT, in article
Message-ID: <737@landmark.iinet.net.au>, Hardwick's response is:

|> In article <3oku1p$ggs@sat.ipp-garching.mpg.de>,
|> Bruce D. Scott (bds@ipp-garching.mpg.de) writes:
|> >Please give the series of arguments by which you denigrate Wilson and
|> >Harris in this fashion. I hope you don't make the mistake of claiming
|> >Harris defends the status quo. He most certainly does not, as several
|> >passages in _Cultural Materialism_ and _America Now_ make clear. As a
|> >non-anthropologist, _I_ know Harris mainly through his books, but are you
|> >as an anthropologist actually claiming he hasn't written several texts and
|> >a large number of articles in peer-reviewed journals?
|>
|> I "denigrate" Harris and Wilson? I claim that Harris "defends the
|> status quo"? From what sewer did you dredge these gems?

|> [...]

The denigration is from his own post, of course. Note the deletion sans
ellipsis above (and that my use of "status quo" was merely preemptive, and
then note the response). With someone so transparently dishonest, I will
have no further traffic, except only to note that his allegations of my
having said things against the whole anthropology (and further acting as if
I actually had; cf the talk of questions and money) should be seen in the
same light as the performance above.

--

Gruss,

Dr Bruce Scott                             The deadliest bullshit is

Max-Planck-Institut fuer Plasmaphysik       odorless and transparent

bds@ipp-garching.mpg.de                               -- W Gibson