People keep asking how anthropology is different from sociology, and everybody gets nervous.
I think the perception of there being a deep gulf between science and the humanities is false.
Has feminism made us all more conscious? I think it has. Feminist critiques of anthropological masculine bias have been quite important, and they have increased my sensitivity to that kind of issue.
If I remember correctly, a writer is someone who wants to convey information. Language or writing is a code.
Anthropology never has had a distinct subject matter, and because it doesn't have a real method, there's a great deal of anxiety over what it is.
Gender consciousness has become involved in almost every intellectual field: history, literature, science, anthropology. There's been an extraordinary advance.
Meaning is socially, historically, and rhetorically constructed.
I agree with Chomsky in almost nothing. When it comes to innate structures and so on, I'm very skeptical.
I had a hard time convincing students that they were going to North Africa to understand the North Africans, not to understand themselves.
I don't feel that an atmosphere of debate and total disagreement and argument is such a bad thing. It makes for a vital and alive field.
I never leave a sentence or a paragraph until I'm satisfied with it.