Kind of a harsh title for a post, but that’s really how I see this entry over on Savage Minds. To be fair, it’s really hard to feign badassness when your profession’s standard issue gear is the notebook from Blue’s Clues and maybe a kinship chart. That doesn’t strike fear into the heart of anyone.
Although that gets me thinking: how freaking hard would it be to scare a hunter-gatherer? I mean on one hand, maybe you could just brandish an iPhone, and the villagers would either worship you or kill you for channeling demons. But that would happen in any Soviet Bloc country, too, and probably more likely there than in Papua New Guinea.
If you spend your entire life trying to kill shit without a gun, and you live in the jungle and get chased by tigers and maybe the occasional dragon, you’re probably going to be tough as hell. I mean, I’m a pale computer geek and even I was never impressed by John Wayne. You know?
So anyway, in the spirit of the Savage Minds post, I’d offer these tentative rules for an anthropologist’s code:
- Lie
- Publish
- Repeat
At least, that’s how I understand the field thus far.
I liked the Cowboy Code, although the “Never Shoot First” one is problematical. And confusing John Wayne with a real cowboy is like saying that anyone “male” qualifies as being a “man” (you always did misinterpret that).
How can there be Soviet bloc countries when there is no longer a Soviet? But I get your drift and promise not to brandish an iPhone in such places (nor in a lot of places Stateside).
You know, I did originally type “former Soviet Bloc” and then removed the “former” because, I mean, I’m still judging them by that. So in my mind the USSR lives on. This is 3CP1 television…
And for the record, it’s harder to find a more discrediting picture of a cowboy. I still trying to burn anthropologists. It is really all Blue’s Clues and kinship charts, you know.