Dustin M. Wax

writer, educator, anthropologist, and freelance thinker

knowledge

The Construction of Anthopological Non-Knowledge

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There's a reason I'm up at 2:30 in the morning. I'm trying to wrap my head around a concept I came across in my research for the paper I'm presenting at the Chicago conference on anthropology and counter-insurgency. Here's the quote that's got me all worked up:

One of the most useful contributions of native anthropology could be the "decontamination" of settler youth by building the analysis of the formidable role of non-knowledge in settler culture into their training for the profession [or anthropology]. (Gwaltney, John L. "On Going Home Again -- Some Reflections of a Native Anthropologist". Phylon 37:3. 1976/ Pp. 241-2.)

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