Culture and Truth: The Remaking of Social Analysis Book

This was assigned reading a few years ago, but I only got half way through it then. It was a bit of a struggle this time too.

A very heady book in which Rosaldo takes up many of the fundamental questions plaging (now post-colonial) human science. There is a profound amount of material on changing perception in anthropology (which is central to the book) and Rosaldo's position in the polemic of the changing political goals in universities. The latter point should be noted: a shift to more conservative topics is not purely a political one, as Rosaldo reminds the reader, but rather affects everything from office space, and promotions, to the educational visions of entire departments.

This goal-changing was started in America under the Regan Administration and in Britain under Thatcher (It's a Sin by Lawerence Grossberg approaches the British anthropologist's problem). This was of course continued in America during the Bush years, so the topic is still very relevant.

Because the book also points out the importance in social sciences of studying borderlands, interactions between field workers and informants, class struggle and so on, there is also a profound amount of information for the readers and writers involved in the study of globalization.

Rosaldo does all of this without bogging the reader, even the non-anthropologist reader, down. This is a book about social theory, not a death march through his thesaurus. He writes well and sparingly. His phrasing is as adroit as his diction.

These are some of the many reasons this was assigned for me in class. The book is well worth reading. If I have a complaint about it, it's that the writing style (very essayist) doesn't exactly reward the reader for continuing between chapters. One gets done with a section and wants a nap/ciggy/sandwhich, not another 10 pages right away.