John Gilmour suggests that anthropology's embrace of discomfort as a path toward understanding and self-reflection offers a model for people in Cape Town [and the U.S.]: perhaps everyone should take an anthropological approach to learning about their neighbors and their city.
John's one hesitation is anthropology's lack of an explicit actvist agenda--after six years of conversations with me about anthropology, he still struggles with the discipline's lack of a clearly articulated goal of social transformation.
Anthropologists narrate the stories of others, translate experience, acknowledge unrecognized or marginalized truths, and provide witness to people's struggles, hardships, and joys. Some anthropologists research and publish books in order to make a living and get tenure, and some (probably most) do so from a position of empathy and genuine humanism.
But this isn't good enough for John: he wants an anthropology with explicit transformative goals, an anthropology committed to a better future. What good is it to place oneself in a space of social discomfort if the experience does not lead one to a different consciousness and a different life path? Otherwise, John implies, but is too kind to say, anthropology is more like a long-term tourism.
Excerpt from "Transforming Cape Town" by Catherine Besteman.
