An interview of the anthropologist Sir Edmund Leach

[kingofaikido]

..one wonders, therefore, what the attraction is in the whole 'theoretical' enterprise.. in a world where we more or less understand each other as fellow human beings, different warts and all.. who, exactly, does 'theory' serve? In what way are so called 'objective' facts, drawn from privileging the anthropological 'gaze' somehow superior to those we deem exotic because they don't use the 'eye' in the same way..

[kingofaikido]

Don't you love the way these gentlemen slur their speech? Don't get me wrong, I really love Leach's work, particularly his under-developed theory of swear words. I couldn't but help wonder to what extent anthropology in the functionalist sense, field-work that is, has been complicit in changing the exotic cultures around the world into copies of the West. That might be exaggerating things, but when I saw Trinh's 'reassemblage', particularly the line 'I can only see life looking back at life'...

[selwynr]

Excellent, both great minds, thank you.