Date: 16 Nov 1994 01:01:07 GMT
From: Iain Davidson 
Newsgroups: sci.anthropology
Subject: Re: Academic postings . . .

Whilst agreeing with everything that John Collier says, let me add
something despite the fact that ot seems to me much more sensible to
simply ignore the intemperate outpourings that gave rise to his reply. 
Gill Hardwick wrote about David Rindos

> 
> : Or was it maybe that his work is just a load of unmitigated, bourgeois
> : codswallop right from go to woe?

The problem is that there is no doubt at all about the importance of
Rindos' work.  You may disagree with it, and all serious scholars are
happy to be disagreed with, but you cannot dismiss it in these emotive
terms if you want to be regarded as part of the discussion. 

Thus, it would be appropriate for academics to take no notice.  But from
my own experience I can attest that when people start to utter such
opinions, some mud sticks.  We all understand that the statement is
inappropriate on a serious newsgroup, but cann ot completely censor the
utterance from our thinking.  Remember all those TV courtroom dramas where
the attorney introduces an objectionable statement... My concern that this
form of vilification takes place at all but also it drives many people
away from wasting time on newsgroups of this sort.  In the interests of
all concerned about anthropology, I suggest that no one has anything to do
with these specific allegations or with this sort of flaming. 

Iain Davidson