GABlog Generative Anthropology in the Public Sphere

March 8, 2010

GASC 2010 Update

Filed under: GA — Q @ 11:32 am

Dear Colleagues,

The deadline for paper submissions for the 4th Annual Generative Anthropology Summer Conference (GASC 2010) has been extended to March 15th. We still have room in the program, and we encourage all interested parties to submit an abstract or panel proposal. The theme this year is “The Anthropology of Modernity: the Sacred, Science, and Aesthetics.” The conference will take place on June 24th-26th at Westminster College and Brigham Young University.

The conference this year is shaping up to be a very exciting event, with Keynotes from Prof. Vincent Pecora from the University of Utah and Prof. Eric Gans from UCLA. We are meeting this year in Salt Lake City, Utah, nestled up against the beautiful Wasatch mountains. Accommodations are available on campus at Westminster College for very reasonable rates, or there are nearby hotels that also have affordable rooms. Please see our website for more information:

http://people.westminstercollege.edu/faculty/pgoldman/GASC_2010/index.html

We look forward to hearing from you and hopefully seeing you at the conference!

~Peter

February 3, 2010

GASC 2010 Website

Filed under: GA — Q @ 4:09 pm

The website for the 4th annual Generative Anthropology Summer Conference, 2010 is now available:

http://people.westminstercollege.edu/faculty/pgoldman/GASC_2010/index.html

Our conference this year is being held in Salt Lake City, Utah, June 24-26, at Westminster College and Brigham Young University.

If you are planning to present a paper, we encourage you to submit an abstract soon. More details are available at the website.

We’re delighted to announce that on-campus lodging will be available for only $25 a night. This is a single bed in a private room, with a shared bath and kitchen. Very modern, new rooms. There are also regular hotels rooms available nearby for  $80-90 a night including kitchenette.

Please contact Peter Goldman-  pgoldman@westminstercollege.edu -with any questions or comments.

May 11, 2007

No longer raining on the just and unjust alike

Filed under: GA — Q @ 9:51 am

A headline in my local newspaper today proclaimed “Study finds storm [Katrina] hit blacks harder.”

Is anyone else getting tired of these studies, which seem to be appearing in our news now on a daily basis, that not everybody in America ends up in the same place? A local “scandal” in Utah is that hispanic children in the public schools do not do as well on achievement tests as whites. Public pressure forced the governor to appoint a commission to investigate. Yet there has been no evidence produced of discrimination in the school system, nor even any allegations of discrimination. Aren’t individuals responsible for themselves anymore? I fear we’re going to end up like the futuristic society described in one of Kurt Vonnegut’s stories, in which the smart, talented, and “advantaged” people are forced to wear various torture devices in order to “level the playing field.”

All we can do is make and enforce the laws against discrimination; after that individuals have to take responsibility for their own outcomes.

~Q

April 29, 2007

What is originary?

Filed under: GA — Q @ 8:02 pm

I would like to try to clarify what is originary and what is not.

In one sense, all of culture is originary, in the sense that all of culture can be traced back to the originary scene. But that’s like the night in which all cows are black; the definition gives up what makes the word meaningful and useful. The originary is actually present at the originary scene, and includes the sacred, the sign, the aesthetic, and so on. Narrative is originary (at least implicitly), but literature, it seems to me, is not, since it evolved later. There have been many cultures without literature. (Myth, of course, is not literature.) By the same token, sacrifice is originary, but tragedy, as a form of literature, is not. The originary includes the fundamental anthropological categories, the cultural universals. What is not universal to all cultures everywhere cannot be originary.

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