(no subject)

Someday a group of people is going to be depending on me to represent them to the world. Someday, the "official" version of one culture's reality is going to rest on the way I observe and portray it.

I won't say that my chosen field is high-pressure. I'm not going to be a doctor, holding living organs in my hands. I'm not going to be a lawyer, determining guilt and innocence in the minds of others. I want to do fieldwork. I want to understand people for a living. Not only that, I wish to lend some semblance of clarity to peoples' understanding of one another. Anthropology is based on truth, on the validity of subjective truth and the search for another way of viewing reality.

They say unless a man can lie he doesn't know the power of the truth. Maybe it's not so odd after all that when I set out to tell the truth, my anxiety is still that I'm incapable of the honesty and diligence that entails.

For now I may just save myself the worry. I'm a college sophomore, and am therefore not expected to be ready for this. Maybe when the time comes I will be ready. "Not now" doesn't necessarily mean "never" at this stage in one's life. Things change. I'm sure I will as well.

The difficult part is the realization that it isn't about me. It doesn't matter whether my nature drives me to honesty or deception. It's about everyone else in the entire world who may someday read my work and decide for themselves what it means to be a part of Culture X. I hope that when the time comes I'm ready for that, that I won't be letting down the people I want to understand and represent. I owe them better than that, and I owe my audience better.

(no subject)

Someday a group of people is going to be depending on me to represent them to the world. Someday, the "official" version of one culture's reality is going to rest on the way I observe and portray it.

I won't say that my chosen field is high-pressure. I'm not going to be a doctor, holding living organs in my hands. I'm not going to be a lawyer, determining guilt and innocence in the minds of others. I want to do fieldwork. I want to understand people for a living. Not only that, I wish to lend some semblance of clarity to peoples' understanding of one another. Anthropology is based on truth, on the validity of subjective truth and the search for another way of viewing reality.

They say unless a man can lie he doesn't know the power of the truth. Maybe it's not so odd after all that when I set out to tell the truth, my anxiety is still that I'm incapable of the honesty and diligence that entails.

For now I may just save myself the worry. I'm a college sophomore, and am therefore not expected to be ready for this. Maybe when the time comes I will be ready. "Not now" doesn't necessarily mean "never" at this stage in one's life. Things change. I'm sure I will as well.

The difficult part is the realization that it isn't about me. It doesn't matter whether my nature drives me to honesty or deception. It's about everyone else in the entire world who may someday read my work and decide for themselves what it means to be a part of Culture X. I hope that when the time comes I'm ready for that, that I won't be letting down the people I want to understand and represent. I owe them better than that, and I owe my audience better.

(no subject)

Someday a group of people is going to be depending on me to represent them to the world. Someday, the "official" version of one culture's reality is going to rest on the way I observe and portray it.

I won't say that my chosen field is high-pressure. I'm not going to be a doctor, holding living organs in my hands. I'm not going to be a lawyer, determining guilt and innocence in the minds of others. I want to do fieldwork. I want to understand people for a living. Not only that, I wish to lend some semblance of clarity to peoples' understanding of one another. Anthropology is based on truth, on the validity of subjective truth and the search for another way of viewing reality.

They say unless a man can lie he doesn't know the power of the truth. Maybe it's not so odd after all that when I set out to tell the truth, my anxiety is still that I'm incapable of the honesty and diligence that entails.

For now I may just save myself the worry. I'm a college sophomore, and am therefore not expected to be ready for this. Maybe when the time comes I will be ready. "Not now" doesn't necessarily mean "never" at this stage in one's life. Things change. I'm sure I will as well.

The difficult part is the realization that it isn't about me. It doesn't matter whether my nature drives me to honesty or deception. It's about everyone else in the entire world who may someday read my work and decide for themselves what it means to be a part of Culture X. I hope that when the time comes I'm ready for that, that I won't be letting down the people I want to understand and represent. I owe them better than that, and I owe my audience better.