The wolf-pack is tearing away at Jared Diamond. Opportunity knocks:
part of the reason…is to reclaim some of the ground among general readers lost to “experts” like Jared Diamond. With this series, StinkyJournalism.org and SavageMinds.org seek to capture that wider general audience for writings about anthropology.
If the first essay is any indication of what’s to come, good luck with that.
Whoa, this headline should snap a few necks back:
Is modern conservation linked with ethnic cleansing?
It’s a link to this article by Mark Dowie, which is based on his new book, Conservation Refugees: The Hundred-Year Conflict Between Conservation and Native Peoples.
Anyone who knows Mark Dowie (and is familiar with his last few books) can expect the latest to ring a few alarm bells in the conservation community (and prompt some top environmental chiefs to reach for their tums).
The last time I talked with Mark he was gasping at the book’s finish line. I can’t wait to read it. And Mark, when Val and I come calling in Point Reyes this summer, where you gonna put the two little kids trailing behind us? You didn’t have to worry about that the last time we visited.
Anthropologists are fretting over the Jared Diamond fallout.
Dudes, you can’t have it both ways; you can’t engage the public (which is what many of you want) without risking that your work will be interpreted in ways that you never intended. Diamond is an easy straw man because he’s not a member of your club. (And, yeah, because he now might be in a heap of trouble.)
I also have a hard time believing that one writer could embody a whole field, which is what anthropologists seem to believe. If Diamond is the public face of anthropology, don’t blame him. Blame yourselves, blame your own field for not cultivating any cross-over scholars that know how to write for your flagship journals as well as for Harper’s or The New Yorker.
Historians don’t have this kind of problem (or defensive posture). Nor do political scientists or biologists.
So stop bitching about Diamond and start writing (especially if you have tenure) for larger audiences than a couple of dozen fellow scholars. Yes, a place like Savage Minds is a good start, but it’s still an insular world. Take a look at Patty Limerick’s example if you want to see how it’s done. She’s a highly respected environmental historian who over the years has written regularly for newspapers, including a guest op-ed stint for the NY Times.
Calling all Savage Mind bloggers. I’m sure one of you can rise to the occasion.
I can’t wait to hear what the real anthros over at Savage Minds have to say about the Pentagon’s idea to replicate them.
