Critiquing the Critics

In the all too jaded 21st century it is easy to forget that only a hundred short years ago the world was a much different landscape, both physically and culturally. One field to witness these changes along the way and with a critical eye are the fields of anthropology and sociology. These social sciences have already grappled with their identity a few times in their relatively brief lifespans as disciplines. The bottom was pulled out from its Euro-centric, colonialist beginnings during the post war academic expansion of 1960's and 70's the roots of the science were called into serious question, especially as to who's truth the world was receiving. Some of the early anthropologists - namely, Malinowski and Mead were receiving some staunch criticisms from their contemporaries in the field. The voice of James Clifford rings out, in his book the Predicament of Culture as one of the social scientists of today who is trying to make head or tails of a discipline that has "no sovereign scientific method or ethical stance [that] can guarantee the truth..." Clifford pulls out all the stops as he like most ethnographers grapple with how to represent the people they have just studied, along with the sometimes sketchy beginnings of anthropology- he marks six ways in which ethnography pulled itself together in a formula that could work as a discipline - 1) persona of ethnographers, 2) only a basic understanding of native terms/language was need, 3) an emphasis on the power of the trained ethnographer's observation, 4) theoretical abstractions acting as archetypes could save time, 5) studying a specific part of a culture as opposed to the WHOLE thing was helpful, and 6) a glimpse with the right eye could take a snapshot of a true "ethnographic present."

A science that is subject to such scrutiny within is a double edged sword. It is important to maintain a skepticism about what information you are being presented, but at the same time there must be a trust that the work was carried out under certain standards or methods that best represent the direction of the human world. Clifford's critique of colonialist ethnography falls in line with the 1993 anti-ethnographic film of a fictionalized culture, The Couple in the Cage. The film, much like the title describes, features a rather unusual male and female of a made up tribe from deep in the rain forrest that is being paraded around museums across the globe as essentially freaks. Part art project and part social critique of the way that "scientists" have treated people, especially those different then themselves. The film overlaps nicely with Clifford's stance that to make a complete ethnography, the ethnographers themselves, must never stop questioning authority and remain as culturally relative as possible.

And relating to the film's inspirations:
Here's a scene from Tod Browning's FREAKS! (1932) ----- Exploitation or Entertainment?