November 30, 2007
Obama is 'hip to Margaret Mead'
No presidential candidate in history -- not the polymath Thomas Jefferson, not the orator William Jennings Bryan, not the egghead Adlai Stevenson -- has ever uttered a sentence like this: "My mother was an anthropologist [and] the Margaret Mead reference I'm always hip to."
Somehow I was unaware that Barack Obama's mother was a cultural anthropologist. I'm always griping about how policy should be informed by an anthropological perspective, so this pleases me in a roundabout sort of way.
[ I tend to be critical of Mead's work -- but with that aside, I'm just glad he's heard of anthropology. Do you think the current president has any idea who Mead was or what anthropology (cultural or otherwise) is? Sadly, when people ask me what I majored in as an undergrad, most react like "what is this word 'anthropology' you speak of?" ]
30 Nov 17:32 | Link | Category: Human/Primate Evolution & Behavior, Politics