Musings of an Anthropology Student

Thomas Hylland Eriksen (2015). Small places, large issues an introduction to social and cultural anthropology. fourth ed. London [U.A.] Pluto Press.

This course recommends its’ students to own these two books, and so at least to start with these will be the texts I mostly refer to and from. 

What is a great shame is I almost certainly already owned these and a whole HOST of other fantastic texts... however they are all currently trapped in my aunt’s loft! Pandemic situation makes retrieving them difficult... so for now I have simply purchased new copies. 

It has been six years since I did my masters. Very soon after leaving I ended up getting a CELTA qualification and teaching English for a few years, and now research and illustrate for a small TV Company. So I have not really had much cause to touch on my studies in all this time. 

I work part time, and what with the current situation, it seemed like the ideal time to pick it back up. I have enrolled on Oxford University’s 10 week online Introduction to Social Anthropology course. I plan to share updates, quotes, and musings from my studies, much like I did before. I will be open for questions from anyone thinking about studying anthropology. 

Good news Anth fans!! 

After a few years out of education I’ve decided to dip my toes back into the subject I love so much. 

I’ll be doing an Anthropology course starting September, which means new content, quotes, opinions and book reviews. 

I’ll also be more accessible and able to answer any questions you have for a former Social Anthropology Masters student. 

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Words by Ruth Fillery-Travis

As an ex-scholar of antiquity with a PhD in Roman archaeology I want to say that pulling down statues is part of human tradition in Europe and North Africa, and fulfills an important role in human society.

Statues, plaques, epigraphy (and civic buildings) are typically power being exercised or placated. What do we do when we, as a society, realise that power transgresses in a way beyond that which we are (now) willing to tolerate? In the Roman frame, how do we reclaim or repair some of the honour of our city? We tear down statues. Or we break their faces, disfigure them, chisel off their words and delete their names. In the most extreme cases, we condemn them to damnatio memoriae - their memory is damned, and their works destroyed. The original cancel culture. It's a public performance, enacted by the people typically with the direction by, or tacit permission from power. It provides some restitution to the wronged, some cleansing to society, and a reaffirmation of what society will and will not tolerate.

In a modern framing removing statues will never remove knowledge of the existence of these people and their works. But if we look at this practice in the last we can see that when we remove their names and faces from our cities we are removing the tacit approval of them. We are saying that people like that don't belong in our public lives. They aren't what we as a society (a City as the Romans might have framed it) accept, approve of, or are willing to tolerate. We are saying - they were wrong, we don't accept them as one of us. We are so ashamed of them that we cast them out of us.

People worry that if these statues are gone then people will forget the things they did. Well, let them be forgotten - as individuals. Statues don't educate people. People educate people - let's not pass off the responsibility to tackling the racist, murderous origins of our City to an inanimate object. And honestly, having taught undergraduates, statues are pretty damn low on the list of material culture I'd use to teach the history slave trade.

People want to put that statue in a museum. God no. Museums are direct descendants of the 'cabinet of curiosities' of the rich white man - their original purpose was to collect, classify and objectify the Other. To wield power - either to empower ourselves by borrowing from glorious past or to disempower the unknown and the different by conflating it with the 'savage' past. Many big museums in England would struggle to name a Black member of staff who isn't a security person. Many English museums own material culture, or human bodies, stolen from groups of people. Museums need to be decolonised and to do anti-racism work. There are going to be few museums who can take this statue and not be entrapped by a toxic mix of their own culture and this situation.

Leave it in the water. If it has to go back, smash its face in and chisel off the name and the appellations. Let him be damned to memory - and then let's take responsibility for teaching ourselves our City's part in this murderous history.

Maintaining social distancing but still want to protest for Black Lives Matter? 

Consider joining this event on Facebook: 

https://www.facebook.com/events/935909903525530/

This Thursday, 7pm. 

A post from a friend of mine, reposted with her permission so her voice can be shared.  _____________________________________________________________

Interestingly, I have seen a lot of white people back the protests and riots in Hong Kong, but the not the ones in America. Protesters in Hong Kong destroying shop fronts are justified in their rioting but black people in America and the UK are 'looters', they are thieves.

It fits the white supremacist narrative quite nicely. After all, ethnic minorities are considered thieves through and through. We steal jobs, we steal housing, we steal healthcare, we steal culture when we have children with the natives, and we steal space that isn't ours- so says white media. So it's no surprise to see us our protest being described as theft.

Part of the white narrative, is the idea that black people are inherently criminal. Don't believe me? Here are some stats. In the most recent consensus, white Britons make up 86% of the population in England and Wales (just over 46MM). �Black Britons (I am including mixed race black and white) make up 4.1% (just over 2MM).� Despite representing 4.1% of the population, we make up 12% of the prison population. For every 1000 white people, 4 white people are stopped and searched. For every 1000 black people, 42 are stopped and searched. Black students are 3 times more likely to be excluded from school than their white peers (a bias I have observed myself as a teacher). Black women are 4.5 times more likely to die in childbirth in the UK. Despite all the black players in the Premier League, there are no black premier league managers. Despite our art being consumed avariciously by white culture, black people only make up 3% of the creative industries at management level. Black people are 4 times more likely to die from COVID-19 and 40% more likely to be fined from flouting the rules.

Is this because we are inherently criminal? Is this because we do not deserve to have equal footing? Or is it because we live in racist system that seeks to keep us oppressed and excluded from the benefits of the systems, a system that we have up-help and contribute to.

So do not dismiss the mass murder of black people in America as American racism or 'American Madness'. The stats in this country proves that institutionally, we live in similar conditions to our black American cousins. It also means that white Britons share similar sentiments to their white American cousins. You better believe that if our police force could use guns so freely, we would also see videos of young black men being shot by white policemen.

If you enjoy black culture and have black friends, please do more than lament that it's sad. Challenge your friends and family when they say or do racist things. Challenge your politicians when they say racist shit. Challenge your co-workers when they are prejudiced in the work place. Challenge yourself to understand and learn more about your own history. Don't project your own discomfort about racism on to your black friends and colleagues when they talk about racism, and most importantly, do accept that racism is part and parcel of white culture and it is your responsibility too to undo it. _____________________________________________________________ There are plenty of recources online to find out how you can help. 

There are many ways to protest and take action. 

Haha no worries, thank you for the question. That certainly sounds fascinating and it’s excellent to be seeking out real research to base a sci-fi concept on. 

I am very disappointed to not be able to call anything to mind. It has been a long time since I had the luxury of access to Jstor, and most of my books are currently trapped in my Aunt’s loft. 

Hello there, 

Hello there! 

Sorry if this is a very delayed response. I haven’t been on here in a while and Tumblr does not seem to date its messages. 

Anthropology was a wonderfully eye-opening degree for so many reasons. The most direct link between Anthropology and my Teaching was the fact that as part of my undergraduate I went to live and study in Japan for a year. That was the most incredible year of my life and I was desperate to go back. 

After my Masters anthropology-based jobs were somewhat hard to come by (Museums want experience, and research positions want PhDs), so I decided I would go back to Japan and teach English. 

The other motivation for taking the course I went with (the CELTA) was that The British Council (which does a lot of work in anthropology-based areas) has a minimum of a CELTA plus 2 years experience as their entry requirements for their teaching and enrichment jobs. My plan was made and life was set (so I thought). 

I got the CELTA (hard work but lots of fun) and applied to the JET programme (one of the more famous courses). However for a variety of reasons, I ended up not going. I actually got a job with some very good schools in England instead, and although this might not sound as exciting, I am relieved. The JET programme would have most likely stuck me as the support teacher in a school in the middle of nowhere, where I would have taught very young children how to count (a worthy job! but not of interest to me). By staying in England I got to have classes of my own, plan my own lessons, go to enrichment courses and learn about the latest teaching theories, and have really excellent discussions with students about all kinds of topics. 

In my mind, anthropology is more of a world-view than a knowledge base. Once you have that curiosity for culture, and that analytical eye that helps you see that everything has a history, then you can’t help but bring a little of that into almost everything you do. It helped me put genuine questions towards my students, and have discussions with them on genuinely interesting topics, rather than only “what you did on holiday”.