Cultural Perspectives: The Eyewitness vs. The Reader
What kinds of perspectives do people have on foreign cultures and how qualified do they feel to explain such cultures to others? A recent post on Ethnography.com argues in favor of the “armchair” scholar who conducts his research on various communities from libraries, saying the perspectives and information placed in books is more than one person could ever experience through travel and residence abroad. The writer of the post admits that there is value in both reading and experiencing culture, but how do people value knowledge gained from life experiences and textual knowledge? Let us know what YOU think.
Sean
rw-3.com
I think this is a very interesting question to be asking. As a student of Anthropology in India, we’d often been advised to be skeptical of the 19th century enthnographic literature written by ‘armchair’ European social scientists on Indian communities, without having visited India even once (and rightly so, if I may add). However, ironically enough, now that I’m living in Europe, I find that somehow my most reliable knowledge of European culture derives more from books than the actual experience of living in Europe. The written word (say, about the history, culture or traditions) of a place often tends to be more reliable, more researched and informative than a singular opinion held by a subject.