chapotraphouse

you shouldn't ever trust white anthropologists

I didn't know about the dangers of anthropologists until I read a novel by Chinua Achebe (my teacher was a white South African who was fiercely anti-apartheid and hugely pro-Nelson Mandela, and they pointed me in the direction of one of this guy's books) and had a teacher of mine explain the behaviors of white anthropologists in Africa. The novel itself probably didn't delve into white anthropolists specifically, but getting my hands on this book got me into some very enlightening discussions with my teacher at a time where if not for this teacher I would've had zero interest in social/colonialist developments around the world.

I've always found as a concept in novels, the idea of meeting different cultures and getting to meet people from vastly different ways of life to be fascinating (my family were never xenophobic; they always found people and cultures from every part of the world (yes, I'm talking non-Western) fascinating and never believed in the silliness that some cultures were out to get us); the idea of anthropologists using such an awesome seeming position to do so much harm, to betray people who have no desire to be suspicious of them, repulses me deeply. What astronauts are to most people is what anthropology is to me, and I despise people who've poisoned this well with, frankly, some of the worst excesses of capitalism.