The Hindu : Kerala News : Students told to study forces shaping society

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Wednesday, Jul 23, 2008
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Students told to study forces shaping society

Special Correspondent

THALASSERY: Students of anthropology have been called upon to take responsibility to study and recognise the forces that shape society.

Delivering a lecture on “American approach to anthropological knowledge: an overview of examples from Kerala” at the Anthropology Department on the Thalassery campus of Kannur University at Palayad here, David A. Kideckel, Professor of Cultural and Applied Anthropology, Central Connecticut State University, U.S., said that anthropology being an all-inclusive study of humanity, how people’s identities were changing because of globalisation was a major topic of study for the anthropologist. Observing that anthropologists were often viewed as those studying the ‘other’ such as ethnic and social minorities, Africans and indigenous people in Latin American countries, he said, “the ‘other’ and ‘us’ are not really the ‘other’ and ‘us’ as we are all part and parcel of the same process.”

Prof. Kideckel said the primary concern of the anthropology student was who people thought they were. They should also see that there was conflict between individuals as members of a group of organisation and individuals in their identity as independent consumers and other categories, he said adding that there was remarkable degrees of individualism in the U.S. The Professor, who had been in the State as part of his study of Kerala society, said he saw a very serious crisis of legitimacy of politics in the State. He urged anthropology students to study the emerging culture of flats in cities. Anthropology Department head Vineetha Menon was present.

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