This dissertation is a study of how anthropologists in Canada
over the previous thirty years, have constructed anthropological
knowledge. It reports, examines, and comments upon interviews with
anthropologists trained inside and outside of Canada. Most occupy
senior academic positions at Canadian universities. Interpretation of
this material takes place within the discourses of the anthropology of
knowledge and education.
Anthropologists say that ways of thinking about anthropological
knowledge conflict at the theoretical level but do not conflict in
practice. Practice is defined as fieldwork and teaching. Here, theory is
felt only indirectly. Various tensions follow from this understanding.
They include those between subject and object, positivism and post-positivism,
value and validity, field and archive, and cultural
relativism versus scientific knowledge.
The concept which mediates these tensions is that of the field.
Fieldwork is seen by anthropologists as an experience with both
epistemological and ethical implications. Ethically, the field supports a
certain manner of living and outlook on humanity. This outlook
includes respect for cultural differences. Yet, epistemologically, the field
is divisive because it is cast as the promotional agent for various kinds
of method, theory, and reflective analyses. These analyses include a
belief in value relativism in concert with a scientific notion of validity.
For example, if it were not for the fundamental tools of positivism in
anthropology, anthropologists felt that anthropological knowledge
might be seen as idiosyncratic. In their search for human knowledge,
anthropologists are united by their methods and ethics. They are
divided, however, by their theories. These divisions and unities are
inherited in the culture of anthropology. Although anthropologists
understand different cultures' values to be equal, they suggest that
ways of knowing another culture through anthropology are not equally
valid.
Theoretical conflicts are also produced in institutions. These are
seen as major influences on the 'look' of anthropology at various
times and places. Departments, publishers, students and teachers are all
influences on anthropological knowledge construction.
Anthropological knowledge is also seen as being constructed at a
personal level. Anthropologists feel the concept of vocation in the
individual's life-narrative as an anthropologist is important to this
construction. Anthropology is seen as a calling or assignation. As well,
the purpose of anthropological knowledge is seen as an ethical precept.
The sanctity of field experiences for these anthropologists brings them
together ethically but divides them epistemologically.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:BVAU.2429/6759 |
| Date | 11 1900 |
| Creators | Loewen, Gregory Victor |
| Source Sets | Library and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Relation | UBC Retrospective Theses Digitization Project [http://www.library.ubc.ca/archives/retro_theses/] |
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