A Class Act: Anthropology and the Race to Nation Across Ethnic Terrain
Annual Review of Anthropology
Vol. 18: 401-444 (Volume publication date October 1989)
B F Williams
In lieu of an abstract, the publisher reproduces the first page of the article. (Link)

Letters to My Tutor…

My dearest Simone,

It’s quite a different experience to read peer-reviewed anthropology/social science articles than it is to read social science articles produced for or by mass media outlets. I started to read “A Class Act” and I thought articles like these form the basis for falling in love with anthropology. Though all my anthropology professors have seemed well-educated, I also came across anthropologists/social scientists who seemed at best to have been educated at Mass Media U; and that was disheartening. Sometimes it seems like bad social science is winning.

I am excited to finish the current article and comment. With my new schedule it will take me a couple weeks to do so which means it will likely be a couple weeks before I post again. (I’ve had to make some tough decisions about what I can realistically get done over the summer.) Just tonight I learned that the author is a black (African-American) woman. I’ve found a couple interviews of her and will include the links along with comments when I post. Often I look up the author as I start to read an article, but this time I was away from the computer. She speaks in one of the interviews on what attracted her to anthropology and I’m especially interested in reading that.

I do still believe math/physical science culture is a better fit for me. I felt at home during my first semester of math and chemistry (and I made A’s!) , and I feel especially compelled to take more math. I do continue to look for intersections between physics and anthropology…

Yours ever,
S.

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