Wednesday, August 15, 2012

Being and Becoming an Action Anthropologist








From the Prologue to my publication “Cheyenne Action Archeology”:

What Linda Davis-Stephens gives me credit for I essentially learned from Sol Tax at the University of Chicago, one of the great men of American anthropology, who was my adviser and major professor there. One of the things that made him great was his willingness all his life to learn from people of cultures different from ours, and that he worked for using this knowledge for them and for all of us. I passed this conviction and attitude he had named action anthropology on to those students who listened with open minds and were not afraid to step away a little from the trodden paths of what was applauded as the anthropology of the day. Linda was one of these students.

         This short text of hers is full of insight, experience, and ideas, reflecting the very best of the original anthropological tradition, now oftentimes lost in the computer clatter of quantification and statistics. It is a straightforward and precise text that tells whence she came, how she became, what she learned, what she is learning, and what can be done with what is learned. The text is a journey to which readers are invited to participate in. At the conclusion the reader will find where he/she stands, and where he/she could be going.

         The text is correct in its descriptions of events, historical and recent, and clean in its scientific underpinnings. It is also sensitive and poetic, always truthful. It shows an anthropology that is thoroughly alive.

Karl H. Schlesier, Professor Emeritus
Corrales, New Mexico
1998

Find link to full content of “Cheyenne Action Archeology”  
as .doc  http://www.angelfire.com/ks2/hipp/ under the Heading:
El Cuartelejo Webliography and Sources