required reading greatest hits
Friday, 10 December 2021 21:43![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
braintransplant“Prototype Semantics: The English Word Lie” by Linda Coleman and Paul Kay (1981)
Ok this is absolutely a personal indulgence inclusion. But listen...prototype semantics is like top 10 linguistics theories of all time! TO ME. I did a big research project on the topic of lying, which is the perfect arena to think about prototype semantics: a framework which argues that categorization is a gradient phenomenon rather than a dichotomous one. AKA, what is required for us to call something a lie? Is it still a lie if it only fulfills half of the requirements? Two thirds of them? All? None? And so on. Fun!
“An Anthropology of Lying: Trump and the Political Sociality of Moral Outrage” by Carole McGranahan (2017)
More lying stuff that is also a wildly entertaining indictment of US politicians and an interesting investigation of the dynamic between power and deceit. This hangs out more in the realm of anthropology than linguistics so it's not super jargon-y.
“What Was Life? Answers From Three Limit Biologies” by Stefan Helmreich (2011)
‘Life’ is a category we invented...and our idea of ‘life’ is inherently biased by our experience as humans on Earth...so where are the boundaries of what can be a living thing? If we found life on another planet, would we be able to understand it? Could we recognize it? Would we see it as life at all? Who knows!!! Postmodern anthropology is soooo much fun and this short piece is very emblematic of that IMO.
“Affective Space, Melancholic Objects: Ruination and the Production of Anthropological Knowledge” by Yael Navaro-Yashin (2009)
Literally the anthropology of Vibes. Really interesting to think about how living in the abandoned homes of people you went to war with would affect you.
“Letting Go” by Atul Gawande (2010)
Okay first of all do not read this unless you are in a place to cry your fucking eyes out. Seriously. I was assigned this reading during palliative care week in global health/medical anthropology class, and it is an extremely moving (TO ME) and well written investigation about how biomedicine’s obsession with extending life is culturally ingrained and often quite damaging. It's kind of a rumination on the sanitization and distancing of death in the US too...just really good. But I cried a lot.
“Positive Deviance Among Athletes: The Implications of Overconformity to the Sport Ethic” by Robert Hughes and Jay Coakley (1991)
link
Sports sociology is so good actually. What do you know about “Unfortunately, many athletes never hear these words of caution; they are not encouraged to seek excellence by ‘flying the middle way,’ by following the example of Daedalus. Instead they are encouraged to fly too high-into the sun. Not surprisingly, they get caught up in the adventure and, when they do, they frequently meet the same fate as Icarus.”
“Knowing the Oriental” Edward Said (1979)
Edward Said coined the term orientalism, and the first chapter of his book on it was assigned to me in a history of epistemology class. It's nothing new for anyone even slightly involved in leftist politics of course but I think it's still a good, cutting read. “British knowledge of Egypt is Egypt” sticks in my head as probably the most apt description of how orientalism works ever.
“De-medicalizing Anorexia: A New Cultural Brokering” by Richard O’Connor and Penny Van Esterik (2008)
I tried to find a version of this that did not have images, but couldn’t, so definitely do not click on this one if you are not prepared to see eating disorder related imagery! Anyway. Read this back in a medical anthropology textbook and it just stuck with me…it’s about how we culturally construct disease, how most treatment programs are wrong about anorexia, and moralizing eating. It's short and easy to understand and totally changed my perception of eating disorders. Forever!
Coming of Age In Samoa by Margaret Mead (1928)
Unfortunately Margaret Mead still has some issues re: cultural relativism/ethnocentrism/calling people primitive/general bigotry, but the overall conceit of this work is just so interesting to me. Basically, this is research about how the general Western notion of teen angst/puberty/emotional distress/confusion etc is basically just the result of cultural neuroses about sex and gender and the body. Like it's bullshit made out of other bullshit we invented! Of course I’m not brain dead and know that all cultural norms and ideas are made up, I just never thought to apply that to this specific thing, i.e. the ideologically expected experience of being a teenager. Mead has faced criticism for having some discrepancy between her data and her assertions, as well as from Samoan people for exaggerating the acceptability of promiscuity (especially in the 1920s) but current anthropological consensus is that as a whole, the research stands. I’ve only ever had to read the intro and one other chapter of this so I can’t vouch for everything, and there are definitely moments that will make you -_- at the bigotry popping out, but I think about this a lot nonetheless.
Purity and Danger by Mary Douglas (1966)
Miss Douglas also has some issues with referring to other groups of people as ‘primitive’ but overall Purity and Danger slaps. The main idea is that ideas of purity and pollution (dirty and clean, hygienic and unhygienic) are not only the primary organizing principles of society, but also generally arbitrary. Seems obvious now that it is not 1966, but it's still a fun way to think about the world. I know I mentioned this in response to that stupid nut milk tweet but literally if I had time and a reason I could do a whole project on the somewhat recent and weird obsession with ‘cleanliness’ of food that has little consideration for how food is actually produced or what is actually safe for someone to eat and only cite Purity and Danger to do it.
Other stuff I enjoyed learning about but I either don’t know what the exact source is or the source is an old ass tome of a book no one wants to read or its just a whole book I don't feel like explaining:
- Arnold Van Gennep’s theory of liminality
- Victor Turner’s rites of passage
- Interpellation + the ideological state apparatus
- The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot
- Basically all of the ancient Greek mysteries (especially the Dionysian one)
no subject
2021-12-12 04:11 (UTC)hopefully i will get to these relatively soonish or... at some point... and can maybe offer my thoughts, idk, mostly i'm just super excited to have custom distilled sydknowledge..... a brain transplant if you will