News from Otherwhere(historytoday.com)

19 pointsby benbreenhace 7 años3 comments

https://www.historytoday.com/reviews/news-otherwhere

3 comments

K0SM0Shace 7 años

Without relating much to the article's particular examples, I'll say this about anthropology and sociology: among people who have studied several domains (e.g. the idea of a "major" and a "minor" in most Anglo-cultural countries, or simply people who tried at several things), of which one was anthropo-/socio-logy, a striking majority report that these were the studies that helped them the most, generally, in life, whatever their trade.

(you can safely remove cases of doctors or lawyers or engineers who cannot do without the major, obviously; consider general studies for most jobs out there that fill 80% of businesses)

My anecdotal opinion is that anthropology in particular triggers a formidable widening of your conception of "human", "society", "rules", all these abstract yet incredibly tangible concepts / objects.

It's hard to explain concisely, but the promise is that you get closer to having some sort of "third eye"[1] at a collective level, i.e. regarding your own family, crew, city, country, planet. A typical case of "can't un-see" which screams all the relativity of human cultures and behaviors — i.e. outside of biology (and even there), "normal" means very little in natural terms, normalcy is pretty much acquired / trained / cultural.

I'd recommend anthropology (and some sociology to link it with current / modern societies) to anyone wanting to "expand their mind" a lot about what it means to be human, how our rules and ways of life are both relative and potentially very variable, and generally to be able to navigate all the political mumbo-jumbo of human groups and circles (family, office, public, etc).

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[1]: in a down-to-earth psychological meaning, the "third eye" is one's ability to look at oneself from a third-person perspective, i.e. to remove the camera from subjectivity ("1st person view"), to observe oneself from the outside. I think Freud called it the "it".

It's a trained habit that we think biomechanically enabled by the prefrontal cortex, and likely instrumental in making us "sapiens sapiens", i.e. able to reflect upon ourselves, self-awareness. I am implying that anthropology is one way to acquire this skill from a collective standpoint, i.e. "see how we (the we's you belong to: your family, or office, city, country...) are different from others, see how we are and how we could be, have been, or would become."

You'd think like me that you know it all because you've seen the world (all hemispheres, all continents), you're opened to or knowledgeable about other cultures blablaba, and you take 1 class in anthropology with a great teacher and your mind is blown — how limited, little, narrow your ideas were, how much bigger that thing actually is.

frobozhace 7 años

I agree completely with you that some anthropological knowledge can be useful in any number of fields, but then as a cultural anthropologist I'm more than a little biased. That being said, I'd argue that sociology isn't a necessary accompaniment to anthropology to understand/analyze contemporary Western cultures. I earned my doctorate studying World of Warcraft guilds (believe it or not), so I can vouch for the discipline's ability to address "modern" concerns.

K0SM0Shace 7 años

> sociology

Fair enough. I guess I should've stopped at saying that a little bit of exposure to both is good, can't hurt. My personal story was to come in for socio (part of political studies) but I left with anthropo as the real eye-opener.

> I earned my doctorate studying World of Warcraft guilds (believe it or not)

I've spent more time than I care to admit playing WoW and other 'persistent' online games in my 20s, but even more time managing organizations therein... (I'm sure you'll agree that "officers", the staff, spend about twice as much time managing than playing ;-) ) So, I guess I can believe it, like, first hand! And kudos, by the way, you have my genuine admiration. Had I continued in social sciences, I would have definitely focused on virtual environments. We need so much more awareness in that regard if we're to massively become real "digital" civilizations.

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That being said, there's serendipity for me in the turn you took our discussion :)

I'm currently toying (seriously) with the idea of launching a "real world" guild: a 'new'/hybrid type of org that fits somewhere between:

- real medieval guilds (culture centered on a trade, a line of work, set of skills, craftsmanship, etc; and its general interfacing with the rest of the world)

- online modern guilds (organized group, purpose-driven, 'free' and voluntary, etc). Also sort of digging abstract 'dreams' of internet pioneers (the world village, communities..) and taking what fits reality (e.g. looking at the good and bad of open-source).

My project is aimed at developers, software makers; but a deeper goal is to nail (well, explore, experiment, describe) structures, processes, show an idea that others may emulate, in the same or other fields.

Bluntly, I'd love to hear your quick opinion and ask you a few questions maybe. You seem so uniquely qualified!

I haven't drafted much yet (still research/concept), and I'm curious about your very general take on the idea, this elevator pitch; but if you're interested I can give you more details.

I hope this is not intruding on my part, I'd totally understand if you replied with silence for a polite "no".

Best, regardless ;-)