Readings:
Clifford Geertz, Works and Lives.
James Clifford, The Predicament of CultureOn Ethnographic Authority
Reread selection from Studying the Yanomamo,
Assignment:
Post on the following questions:
1. How does Chagnon make his arguments; what are his rhetorical strategies?
2. How does Chagnon gain his ethnographic authority?
In class:
1st hour: general discussion on the topic of whether you think the question of ethnographic authority is really important if anthropology is a science.
2nd hour: further discussion on the relationship between quantitative and hypothetico-deductive research and the problem of ethnographic authorty, using Chagnon's work as an example.