This essay is concerned with two texts by Plato: Gorgias and The Apology. It was written as my first paper for the Philosophy and Education class with John Fantuzzo. Through some strange coincidence or seredipity, I chose to put the wrestling image with the text, which also shaped the title. Later I discovered that Fantuzzo was a former wrestler himself. He appreciated the analogy and allusions. Read more
After class on Tuesday 16th of February, I asked Professor Comitas to help me clarify the history and overview of the field of Anthropology. I’m becoming more interested in the idea of learning Ethnographic methodology but am not clear on how this work fits into the history. After the first couple of classes I pursued an interest in M.G. Smith and read the first third of The Study of Social Structure, but this only served to make me more curious about how others see Smith.
I was hoping for a reading suggestion or recommendation of sorts but instead was asked to take a seat while he gave me an answer. Read more
Another fascinating class with Lambros Comitas. When we arrived he was telling us about how his offices had flooded the previous day. Most of the damage had been cleaned up already, but it had brought to his attention a large collection of documents from M.G. Smith that he hadn’t thought of for around 30 years. Read more
Note: This week I discovered that Soundcloud was not a solution that I could continue with. Unless I’m willing to pay lots of money, the upload restrictions meant that this won’t be possible. So my solution now is to (1) make available the entire file via drop-box to my classmates who would like it and (2) use this online site to cut the file into 10mb chunks, which can be made into this awesome audio playlist as above.
This also explains why I have not written much/anything about this weeks session yet, although it was extremely interesting. I’ve already listened to the audio while taking a walk in the park.
During the class today Professor Comitas spoke at length about the role of Anthropologists, their work, his own beginnings and how he started working in Barbados. Will post more here soon, as well a response to a second listening.
I asked a few questions after class, thinking about where my interests intersect with this work, trying to think of what I might research and write about. I was interested in the idea that ‘Plantation America’ (Julian Steward’s term for the region) was a dependent society, that this was a quality of slave societies – that they be dependent on the societies that they are serving (i.e. Europe, the purchasers of their mono-crops). This, for me, had interesting potential political implications for the region into the future.
When considering the ideas of Social Ecology and Bookchin’s other ideas of a Confederalist Libertarian Municipalism, is it possible to imagine the Caribbean being united under such a banner? Comitas was suggesting that the vast differences between cultures within the archipelagoes had so far prevented anything like a union from forming. This is precisely what interests me. Does the Caribbean,with all of the cultural and political legacy from slavery and colonialism, provide us with examples of the sort of challenges that any contemporary political alternative is likely to face? Could the alternative model of education of ALCs and their political equivalents succeed there?
Not sure if I am making my point clear enough, even for myself. Is the Caribbean the perfect place to test the theories of Bookchin, precisely because of the legacy of slavery and its challenges?
These are only preliminary thoughts of course.