The Elephant in the Living Room That No One Wants to Talk About

Why U.S. Anthropologists Are Unable to Acknowledge the End of Culture

Bibliographic Data

ID7638231
AuthorsGreg Tanaka (0000-0002-6223-4406, Pacific Oaks College, corresponding author)
Year2009
Volume40
Issue1
Pages82-95
Publication date2009-03-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueAnthropology & Education Quarterly (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0161-7761 • E-ISSN: 1548-1492
PublisherWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1111/j.1548-1492.2009.01029.x
OpenAlexW2104757249
LanguageEN
Citations received11
References cited29

Findings from a four‐year action research project at a highly diverse, West Coast U.S. university reveal that a large percentage of white students cannot trace their identities to a particular nation in Europe and are, as a result, unable to name the shared meanings of a particular ethnic culture. Each time Latino, Asian American, and African American classmates describe their families' ethnic histories, it is the European American student who feels dissociated. Extracted from a polyphonic novelistic ethnography, this essay focuses on an exchange among three students at a town hall meeting and explores the ramifications for social cohesion when members of “the dominant group” appear to be experiencing declining subjectivity. This reflection also raises two larger disciplinary questions: (1) How can 10,000 U.S. anthropologists continue to deploy the concept of culture at field sites outside the United States when so many in their own population cannot claim an ethnic culture of their own? and (2) Given the recent turn in events in the U.S. political scene, shouldn't anthropologists now begin developing new constructs for social analysis after race and culture? [culture concept, subjectivity, soul

Epistemology · Ethnic group · Ethnography · Media studies · Political science · Politics · Population · Sociology · Subjectivity · Anthropology · Critical Race Theory in Education · Educator Training and Historical Pedagogy · Gender Studies · Law · Social and Cultural Dynamics

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