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Anthropology Quotes

Browse 323 quotes about Anthropology.

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Anthropology Quotes

“See how exciting Anthropology is? He’s a leading expert in ancient Greece. Now you should all change your majors so that you can ogle men like him all day long. Or better yet, uncover naked male statues. (Tory) Was that necessary? (Acheron) Hey, I live to recruit students for the department. If I can make you good for something, then by golly I’m going to do it. (Tory)”

IfsMenShouldLongI CanStudentsMajorsExcitingMalesAncientNakedHeyExpertsDepartmentGreeceStatuesAnthropologyRecruitAncient Greece
Author:Sherrilyn Kenyon
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“The metaphor is so obvious. Easter Island isolated in the Pacific Ocean — once the island got into trouble, there was no way they could get free. There was no other people from whom they could get help. In the same way that we on Planet Earth, if we ruin our own [world], we won't be able to get help.”

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Author:Jared Diamond
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“You have a lot to learn, young man. Philosophy. Theology. Literature. Poetry. Drama. History. Archeology. Anthropology. Mythology. Music. These are your tools as much as brush and pigment. You cannot be an artist until you are civilized. You cannot be civilized until you learn. To be civilized is to know where you belong in the continuum of our art and your world. To surmount the past, you must know the past.”

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Book:Red
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“I think about my education sometimes. I went to the University of Chicago for awhile after the Second World War. I was a student in the Department of Anthropology. At that time they were teaching that there was absolutely no difference between anybody. They may be teaching that still. Another thing they taught was that no one was ridiculous or bad or disgusting. Shortly before my father died, he said to me, ‘You know – you never wrote a story with a villain in it.’ I told him that was one of the things I learned in college after the war.”

ThinkingKnowsWorldMaySaidStillsWarSometimesStoriesFatherDifferencesTeachingStudentsTaughtCollegeDiedUniversityRidiculousWar Of The WorldsDepartmentChicagoVillainWorld War IDisgustingAnthropologySecond World WarFather DiedMy Father Died
Book:SLAUGHTERHOUSE FIVE
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“I narrowed my eyes at him. "Stuff that. I'll write a doctoral thesis. Then I can go do what most of the other people with doctoral degrees in anthropology do." "What's that?" asked Calvin. "You don't need to encourage her," said Adam seriously, but his eyes laughed at me. "The same thing that people with degrees in history do," I said. "Fix cars or serve frnech fries and bad hamburgers.”

PeopleNeedsWritingSaidI CanEyeStuffCarDegreesHis EyesLaughedAdamAnthropologyHamburgersThesisFries
Book:River Marked
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“Does the evolutionary doctrine clash with religious faith? It does not. It is a blunder to mistake the Holy Scriptures for elementary textbooks of astronomy, geology, biology, and anthropology.”

IfsMeanDoeScienceFaithReligiousMistakeEvolutionHolyConflictCreatorAstronomyScriptureAriseDoctrineSymbolsBiologyImaginaryScience And ReligionAccusedReligious FaithClashAnthropologySystematicTextbooksBlasphemyGeologyBlundersHoly ScripturesEvolutionary BiologyNothing Makes Sense
Author:Theodosius Dobzhansky
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“This missing science of heredity, this unworked mine of knowledge on the borderland of biology and anthropology, which for all practical purposes is as unworked now as it was in the days of Plato, is, in simple truth, ten times more important to humanity than all the chemistry and physics, all the technical and indsutrial science that ever has been or ever will be discovered.”

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Author:George Herbert
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“Geneticists believe that anthropologists have decided what a race is. Ethnologists assume that their classifications embody principles which genetic science has proved correct. Politicians believe that their prejudices have the sanction of genetic laws and the findings of physical anthropology to sustain them.”

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Author:Lancelot Hogben
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“In anthropology, which historically exists to 'give voice' to others, there is no greater taboo than self-revelation. The impetus of our discipline, with its roots in Western fantasies about barbaric others, has been to focus primarily on 'cultural' rather than 'individual' realities. The irony is that anthropology has always been rooted in an 'I' - understood as having a complex psychology and history - observing a 'we' that, until recently, was viewed as plural, ahistorical, and nonindividuated.”

GivingHas BeensSelfRealityIndividualVoiceFantasyPsychologyGreaterFocusDisciplineUnderstoodRootsComplexesWesternIronyRevelationsRootedObservingTabooAnthropologyBarbaricImpetusSelf Revelation
Book:The Vulnerable Observer: Anthropology That Breaks Your Heart
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“Architecture is art. I don't think you should say that too much, but it is art. I mean, architecture is many, many things. Architecture is science, is technology, is geography, is typography, is anthropology, is sociology, is art, is history. You know all this comes together. Architecture is a kind of bouillabaisse, an incredible bouillabaisse. And, by the way, architecture is also a very polluted art in the sense that it's polluted by life, and by the complexity of things.”

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Author:Renzo Piano
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“Economic theorists, like French chefs in regard to food, have developed stylized models whose ingredients are limited by some unwritten rules. Just as traditional French cooking does not use seaweed or raw fish, so neoclassical models do not make assumptions derived from psychology, anthropology, or sociology. I disagree with any rules that limit the nature of the ingredients in economic models.”

DoeUsePsychologyEconomicLimitsModelsRegardCookingFishesTraditionalAssumptionIngredientsDisagreeChefSociologyAnthropologyTheoristsUnwrittenSeaweedFrench CookingEconomic ModelsUnwritten Rules
Author:George Akerlof
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“If we study history and anthropology we will find that all over the world the original people are Black people who migrated from Africa. This is confirmed by recent DNA studies. The only reason that we don't readily accept this is because we are indoctrinated to believe that Africa is the worst place that has ever been. If we had a more positive attitude about Africa we would run to it instead of running from it.”

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Author:Runoko Rashidi
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“Michael Jackson is an extremely productive ethnographer, a serious reader of phenomenological and existential philosophy, and a remarkable writer at a level that one rarely sees in anthropology. Lifeworlds, unsurprisingly, is no exception. The several essays included here fit into an impressive whole that set out a compelling case for a type of ethnography of which Jackson is one of the masters. The writing is strong and the critical reflections impressive. This book defines an approach to anthropology that is resonant enough to challenge the leading models of our time.”

WritingBookEnoughPhilosophyWholeStrongChallengesLevelsCasesSeriousMastersTypeReaderFitApproachModelsReflectionCriticalOur TimeProductiveRemarkableExceptionCompellingExistentialEssaysImpressiveAnthropologyEthnographyCritical Reflection
Author:Arthur Kleinman
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“The Restless Anthropologist is a rich, powerful, and compulsively readable collection of essays by anthropologists who look back at the multiple relationships between their serial fieldwork experiences and their lives. Illustrating the dense interweaving of the personal and the professional that is the hallmark of anthropology as a vocation, these essays are at once affectively deep reflections, and clear-eyed assessments, of lives often lived 'between here and there.' Alma Gottlieb's idea to stimulate these articles and bring together this collection was inspired.”

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Author:Sherry Ortner
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“In a world where concepts are so often deployed in an ad hoc fashion, half explored before being displaced by others, it is immensely refreshing to encounter such serious and sustained attention to the building blocks of inquiry—and to the responsibilities thereby incurred. Designs on the Contemporary is a work of profound importance to the philosophy of anthropology. In conjunction with Rabinow’s other works, it creates a nonpareil, a configuration of thought with no equal.”

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Author:Marilyn Strathern
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“Because he did not have time to read every new book in his field, the great Polish anthropologist Bronislaw Malinowski used a simple and efficient method of deciding which ones were worth his attention: Upon receiving a new book, he immediately checked the index to see if his name was cited, and how often. The more "Malinowski" the more compelling the book. No "Malinowski", and he doubted the subject of the book was anthropology at all.”

IfsBookUsedTimeNamesSimpleAttentionDoubtSubjectsFieldsMethodAll TimeEfficientReceivingCompellingPolishAnthropologyDoubtedNew BooksAnthropologists
Author:Neil Postman
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“This is an extremely ambitious book. In addition to science and mathematics, Byers brings to bear insights from literature, philosophy, religion, history, anthropology, medicine, and psychology. The Blind Spot breaks new ground, and represents a major step forward in the philosophy of science. The book is also a page-turner, which is rare for this topic.”

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Author:Joseph Auslander
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