ANTHROPOLOGY: What is it?

Daryl Debell takes a different position from Linda Nyquist:

"It may be useful to distinguish (1) recognizing and describing the nature and function of values in a culture which is being studied, from (2) letting our own values, our cultural bias if you will, influence the objectivity - the accuracy, of our observations. The practice of human sacrifice by the Aztecs is certainly an abomination by our standards, although my standards would make it hard for me to distinguish those Aztec practices from those of the Conquistadores. Still they were essentially religious acts, and an anthropologist should, I believe, have more interest in documenting and understanding the motivation of the practice, and its place in the culture, than in condemning it. The observation and study of Hitler's killing also has reason to be considered in that light. Our repugnance (a puny word for the feeling) needs to be held in check if we are to study his motivation and his capacity to sell it to the public or at least to his lackeys. Our value judgments of the three practices should not interfere with our efforts to understand their motivations, and particularly their functions in the culture.

My comment: Fine. I have made a study of the origins of Hitlerīs antisemitism. Briefly, The USSR loomed menancingly next to Germany, and the members of the Russian Communist Party (like the American, but not the German) were mostly Jewish. The Jews were also prominent in banking, and Germans were suffering incredible inflation and hardships. I lived in Germany at the time and saw it. This of course does not justify the Holocaust. However, it is impossible to discuss the matter without being accused of antisemitism and holocaust denial.

The anthropologists in their denunciations of Hitler stopped with the description of Aztec behavior and never got beyond that. The distinction between research and judgment is fine, but they must go together. I would not think well of a doctor who analyzed a patient's ailments objectively but showed no compassion for him.

I believe that there are absolute moral standards, and that the task of ethics is to discover them: a complex and daunting task. Incidentally the word "lackeys" above is a value judgment.

Ronald Hilton - 8/29/00