
News from Otherwhere - benbreen
https://www.historytoday.com/reviews/news-otherwhere
======
K0SM0S
Without relating much to the article's particular examples, I'll say this
about anthropology and sociology: among people who have studied several
domains (e.g. the idea of a "major" and a "minor" in most Anglo-cultural
countries, or simply people who tried at several things), of which one was
anthropo-/socio-logy, a striking majority report that these were the studies
that helped them the most, generally, in life, whatever their trade.

(you can safely remove cases of doctors or lawyers or engineers who cannot do
without the major, obviously; consider general studies for most jobs out there
that fill 80% of businesses)

My anecdotal opinion is that anthropology in particular triggers a formidable
widening of your conception of "human", "society", "rules", all these abstract
yet incredibly tangible concepts / objects.

It's hard to explain concisely, but the promise is that you get closer to
having some sort of "third eye"[1] at a collective level, i.e. regarding your
own family, crew, city, country, planet. A typical case of "can't _un_ -see"
which screams all the relativity of human cultures and behaviors — i.e.
outside of biology (and even there), "normal" means very little in natural
terms, normalcy is pretty much acquired / trained / cultural.

I'd recommend anthropology (and some sociology to link it with current /
modern societies) to anyone wanting to "expand their mind" _a lot_ about what
it means to be human, how our rules and ways of life are both relative and
potentially _very_ variable, and generally to be able to navigate all the
political mumbo-jumbo of human groups and circles (family, office, public,
etc).

____

[1]: in a down-to-earth psychological meaning, the "third eye" is one's
ability to look at oneself from a third-person perspective, i.e. to remove the
camera from subjectivity ("1st person view"), to observe oneself from the
outside. I think Freud called it the "it".

It's a trained habit that we think biomechanically enabled by the prefrontal
cortex, and likely instrumental in making us "sapiens sapiens", i.e. able to
reflect upon ourselves, self-awareness. I am implying that anthropology is one
way to acquire this skill from a collective standpoint, i.e. "see how _we_
(the _we_ 's you belong to: your family, or office, city, country...) are
different from _others_ , see how we are and how we _could_ be, have been, or
would become."

You'd think like me that you know it all because you've seen the world (all
hemispheres, all continents), you're opened to or knowledgeable about other
cultures blablaba, and you take 1 class in anthropology with a great teacher
and your mind is blown — how limited, little, narrow your ideas were, how much
bigger that thing actually is.

~~~
froboz
I agree completely with you that some anthropological knowledge can be useful
in any number of fields, but then as a cultural anthropologist I'm more than a
little biased. That being said, I'd argue that sociology isn't a necessary
accompaniment to anthropology to understand/analyze contemporary Western
cultures. I earned my doctorate studying World of Warcraft guilds (believe it
or not), so I can vouch for the discipline's ability to address "modern"
concerns.

~~~
K0SM0S
> sociology

Fair enough. I guess I should've stopped at saying that a little bit of
exposure to both is good, can't hurt. My personal story was to come in for
socio (part of political studies) but I left with anthropo as the real eye-
opener.

> I earned my doctorate studying World of Warcraft guilds (believe it or not)

I've spent more time than I care to admit playing WoW and other 'persistent'
online games in my 20s, but even _more_ time managing organizations therein...
_(I 'm sure you'll agree that "officers", the staff, spend about twice as much
time managing than playing ;-) )_ So, I guess I can believe it, like, first
hand! And kudos, by the way, you have my genuine admiration. Had I continued
in social sciences, I would have definitely focused on virtual environments.
We need so much more awareness in that regard if we're to massively become
real "digital" civilizations.

____

That being said, there's serendipity for me in the turn you took our
discussion :)

I'm currently toying (seriously) with the idea of launching a _" real world"_
guild: a 'new'/hybrid type of org that fits somewhere between:

\- real medieval guilds (culture centered on a trade, a line of work, set of
skills, craftsmanship, etc; and its general interfacing with the rest of the
world)

\- online modern guilds (organized group, purpose-driven, 'free' and
voluntary, etc). Also sort of digging abstract 'dreams' of internet pioneers
(the world village, communities..) and taking what fits reality (e.g. looking
at the good and bad of open-source).

My project is aimed at developers, software makers; but a deeper goal is to
nail (well, explore, experiment, describe) structures, processes, show an idea
that others may emulate, in the same or other fields.

Bluntly, I'd love to hear your quick opinion and ask you a few questions
maybe. You seem so uniquely qualified!

I haven't drafted much yet (still research/concept), and I'm curious about
your very general take on the idea, this elevator pitch; but if you're
interested I can give you more details.

I hope this is not intruding on my part, I'd totally understand if you replied
with silence for a polite "no".

Best, regardless ;-)

