[URBANTH-L] conferences........

[bvergara at sfsu.edu]

[Editor's note: This is a response to Joe Ellman's previous post, by Paul
McDowell (paulanthropus at cox.net).]

That criticism applies to all divisions. Anthropology has become so
hyperspecialized that it is neither applicable to anything useful nor
interesting from an academic standpoint. Then there's that postmodernist
tripe.

To engage in a shameless act of self-promotion, I just wrote a supplemental
textbook that makes that same criticism. I think that we need more work that
criticizes this trend in a field that is supposedly holistic and
cross-cultural in orientation.

Paul McDowell
Instructor in Anthropology
Santa Barbara City College