ANTHROPOLOGY: What is it?

Harry Papasotiriou criticizes anthropologists who want to keep native peoples in their primitive condition while they themselves enjoy the benefits of post-Enlightenment science:

"They are unlikely to forego the benefits which that truly revolutionary triumph of science over superstition brought forth, and to resort to religious/magic rites to drive away evil spirits, should they contract tuberculosis. I am all in favour of preserving national identities based on traditions, so long as we do so in terms of the 21st century, which means that we live with and build upon the monumental breakthrough that the Enlightenment constituted."

Ronald Hilton - 8/30/00