Watch Out! The Anthropologists are Coming! » “Anthropologists! Anthropologists!”
From The Far Side, by Gary Larson, 1984.
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I am wondering why folks feel the need to use foul and insulting language. Is this what we have evolved into?
Dan
November 29, 1999 at 4:00 pm
he he, this is so true. so-called “authentic” indigenous cultures today? right.. :)
woodfarm
August 26, 2008 at 3:36 pm
One word: “Tasaday”. Look it up.
sinanju
April 20, 2009 at 6:14 pm
Actually this is meant to be commenting on the western anthropological gaze on the romanticised ‘native’- you twat.
Aimee
April 17, 2009 at 12:58 am
Aimee, language warning.
Kambiz
April 23, 2009 at 7:16 am
Aimee,
the cartoon is portrayed from the “natives’” point of view because it is meant to comment on THEIR “gaze”–you’re stupid!
Ziggy Zoggy
December 3, 2009 at 10:58 pm
@woodfarm, @ziggy zoggy, @aimee, @sinanju:
This cartoon (a favourite of mine, used to be up on the wall in our anthropology dept) – to me – reflects on the suspicion of many of “us” that uncontacted tribes aren’t really all that uncontacted.
But also – and here I agree with ziggy zoggy – it suggests that these groups are to some extent aware of the value that portraying yourselves as “uncontacted”, “primitive” people has to academic researchers and voyeurs worldwide.
It was this suggestion, sinanju, that seems to have driven much of the scepticism around the Tasaday controversy (I did look it up). That and “journalists” bribing community members.
And I don’t really think it’s all that much about gazes at all. I think it’s more about preconceptions, whereas when people talk about gazes anthropologically they’re talking about affecting what you see by the position you see it from.
Devil's Avocado
July 2, 2010 at 2:51 am
“it suggests that these groups are to some extent aware of the value that portraying yourselves as “uncontacted”, “primitive” people has to academic researchers and voyeurs worldwide..”
Mr/Ms Anthropologist it was Manuel Elizalde who attempted the exploitation. If the Tasaday were a fraud then they did not exists and thus it is not ‘uncontacted ‘primitive’ people that are aware of the value of being ‘uncontacted’. As always it is western idiots with Western models of development that use fraud to exploit people. Don’t blame it on ‘primitive people’ Anthropologist… Fuckry
RasTinny
June 12, 2011 at 6:03 am
I think it is a really nice cartoon that should be pondered upon greatly by participant observers in the field.
wassaman
September 20, 2010 at 5:18 pm
Gary Larson rules get over it people.Oh he also has a couple bugs in his namesake.So he outrules everyone else.lol
jvp_solar
October 4, 2010 at 5:56 pm
Or, you know, it’s just an ironic cartoon :P You people ruin all the fun.
WDF3
December 23, 2010 at 4:11 pm
In a way this reminds me of when MENSA came to Detroit for their national convention in 2010. The Detroit Convention and Visitors Bureau won MENSA over and got the convention with this slogan… “Who was the genius who picked Detroit?”
LOL… needless to say the MENSA visitors were surprised and pleased with their choice once they saw what the city offered.
GerRoland
February 8, 2011 at 4:48 pm
I use this cartoon in my anthropology classes to prompt reflection on how our classic conceptions shape both our own thinking and also help inform how others interact with us …Gary Larson used to sit in on anthropology classes at the University of Washington in the 1980s and always came up with wonderful comic re-takes. He was so enjoyed and appreciated that the UW’s Burke Museum of Natural History even mounted an exhibit of his work in the late 1980s.
Kathleen
June 4, 2011 at 6:26 pm
Gary Larson was at Washington State University in the late 60s / early 70s,
Deborah
June 17, 2011 at 4:51 pm