Brainstorm: Anthropology: The Softest Social Science? - Chron...
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Saved by 1 people (0 private), first by anonymouse user on 2008-08-07
- Forestfortrees on 2008-08-08 - Tags anthropology , social_science , statistics , methods , research
Public Sticky notes
In the era of Franz Boas and Margaret Mead, anthropologists were public intellectuals of the highest order. They wrote for popular magazines and challenged Americans’ too-quick assumptions about the hard-wired ‘nature’ of social life.
Highlighted by jreed93523
But that was then. Now, anthropologists seem mostly relegated to the very back of the line when it comes to assessments about the value of social-scientific attempts to make sense of contemporary issues.
Highlighted by jreed93523
It is a commonsense colloquialism: Statistics lie. But we also think of them as the best chance we have at some kind of hard-and-fast access to social truth.
Highlighted by forestfortrees
As an anthropologist who respects the beauty and elegance of mathematics, I just wish our everyday privileging of its explanatory powers left a tad more room at the table for differently pitched methodological attempts at truth-telling.
Highlighted by forestfortrees
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