The Sokal Affair- Postmodernism debunked?

As I looked for a good article to encapsulate the "Sokol Affair" that I mentioned in class, it turns out the best short treatment I found on it was trusty old "Wikipedia."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sokal_affair

I was mistaken in class when I said that the original article had passed peer review.  The journal, "Social Text,"  was NOT a peer-reviewed journal at the time.  You can bet that it sure as heck is now.  Furthermore, the issue at hand was a special issue on "The Science Wars" in which they were soliciting articles about the disjuncture between postmodern critiques of natural science and scientific critiques of postmodernism.  Whatever its faults, Sokal's satirical piece seemed to fit right into that theme.

I don't want to make too much of this controversy- it was a bit embarrassing but in no way de-legitimizes (if that is a word) the decades of scholarship, mountains of publications, and honorable and successful careers of the many so-called "postmodernist" intellectual.  Not any more than unmasking a shyster lawyer negates the careers of the many competent jurists, a false conviction overturns the myriad legal cases that the system got right, or a bad game exposes the true nature of a star athlete.

And along the lines of postmodernism being concerned with consumerism, public media and parody or satire, here is a link to the brand slogan feature I mentioned.

http://imgur.com/a/H6vfA

Finally, here's a small blurb aboyt The Simposn and postmodernism.  There are better articles out there, but you've already had plenty to read and this one is short.

http://simpsonsculture.blogspot.com/2007/08/postmodernism.html

Chapter 1: PoMO- Postmodernism, Postmodernity, Postmodern...

Hi folks-

Here are two resources I'd like you to read over the weekend.  They aren't incredibly long- again, they are maybe the length of a magazine article from Time or Newsweek- but the ideas can be rather dense, so pay attention and use your noggins when you read these:

1) From Georgetown University- a brief article describing the differences between postmodernity, postmornism, and "The Postmodern" , PLUS a handy-dandy table of comparisons between modernism and postmodernism:
www9.georgetown.edu/faculty/irvenem/theory/pomo/html

http://www9.georgetown.edu/faculty/irvinem/theory/pomo.html

2)  From Purdue, a pretty good historical overview of intellectual traditions leading up to and including postmodernism.  A bit longer than the previous article, but extremely valuable in helping to understand contemporary academic thought:
http://www.cla.purdue.edu/english/theory/postmodernism/modules/introduction.html

Feel free to respond to comments or leave your own...

Ch 1: What is anthropology? Doing Anthropology

Hi Folks-

Here are some goodies for you to read.  The first is an excerpt from the first chapter of a very famous/infamous ethnography called "Yanomamo- The Fierce People" by Napoleon Chagnon.  I read this as an undergrad- many, many anthropology students over the years did as well.  And this excerpt has been passed around to probably even more people.  It's about ten pages, but it's a good read.

http://www.anthroprof.org/documents/Docs102/102articles/yanomamo1.pdf

Second, here's a New York Times article from about a year ago discussing Chagnon and his work. Chagnon is quite a figure in anthropology, for better or for worse.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/17/magazine/napoleon-chagnon-americas-most-controversial-anthropologist.html

Finally, here's a BBC news article about David Good- the son of a Yanomamo woman and anthropologist Kenneth Good- an anthropologist with intimate knowledge of the Yanomamo people (and especially of one particular woman).  His story is quite interesting.  Read the news item and then listen to the interview with him:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-23758087

Interview:  http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p018qzzp

Hope you find this fascinating!

Marc

Introduction:Entering the Heart of Darkness- This American Life: The Devil In Me

Hi Folks-

As promised, here is the story of the vet from the Iraq war who joined the Muslim Student Association to conquer his fears and discomfort with Muslims. (from September 7, 2007).  The story is 34 minutes long, and there is a prologue of about 3 and half minutes beforehand.

Again, my point:  When you are feeling uncomfortable about something, it is usually either because you are in the process of learning something or you are being faced with an opportunity to learn.  Whether you actually learn from it is up to you.

http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/340/the-devil-in-me?act=1#

Happy Listening!

Welcome!

This blog is New to the 2014 spring semester and is intended to provide honors students with supplemental readings for the course ATR 220: Cultural Anthropology.  You should click on the "follow" button to follow this blog, and watch for readings as they appear.  Please leave comments and engage each other, but, as always, keep it respectful!

Oh, I've added buttons to help you subscribe via RSS feeds or by email.