The Past and Future of Generative Anthropology: Reflections on the Departmental Colloquium

Abstract

The Past and Future of Generative Anthropology: Reflections on the Departmental Colloquium Eric Cans The recent departmental colloquium effectiveness of generative anthropology was a demonstration ot the (GA) both as an anthro- pological theory and as an approach to the study of cultural phenomena. The participation of Marvin Harris and Allen Johnson was of particular significance; the dialogue thus begun between GA and empirical anthropology was a step toward bridging the gap be- tween the humanities and the social sciences which is the latest incar- nation of the rivalry between religion and metaphysics. The nascent dialogue showed that an anthropology based on the originary hy- pothesis is fully compatible with the results of empirical research- indeed, to listen to Professor Harris, perhaps the theories more so than some of now These soft vogue among professional anthropologists. theories are in fact signs of the weakening of the de- in fenses of the canonically objective discourse of the social sciences against the deconstructive influence of the dominant discourse of the it humanities. As a result, it may not be long before anthropology is departments call on GA, which already as were inoculated against deconstruction, to help defend them from this influence. guilty fascination with the necessary impurity of language that The makes the us reluctant to describe other thrill that attracts humans from without provides readers to the thick or emic descriptions of Clifford Geertz and to the more clearly deconstructive writings of James Clifford. Much as this may dismay cultural materialists, think this trend reflects in distorted fashion a genuine sense of the