Jane,
I agree with the others who have spoken to this subject. In regard to
your situation with the private company, it's difficult to provide a
well thought out answer as we don't know the whole story about things
such as where does the money go, who set up the business, and if the
local people involved are for it or not. And even if we did, folks would
come down on, around, and on both sides of the fence. However, you seem
to be leaning towards a "noble savage" and "noble anthropologist" vision
of what is best for indigenous Australians, and ignore the fact that
many anthropological relationships were and continue to be formed around
money or exchange. This did/does not occur out of contempt or through a
desire to change the structure/economy of people, but because they
wanted to help or wanted and could afford small luxeries for
themselves. We could contribute to the endless collective argument
about this, but the question would assuredly remain unanswered.
However, I do take issue with your comments about our colonial
ancestors. You state:
"Our colonial anthropologist ancestors appropriated information and
artifacts in shamelessly unequal power relationships with indigenous
informants. And Radcliffe-Brown, among others, was said to have
delivered African peoples into the hands of British colonizers."
While we must keep in mind the time and historical events that were
occurring when these folks were working, show me an anthropologist today
who has an equal power relationship with "indigenous informants." I'm
not sure who you are quoting when you say Radcliffe-Brown delivered the
African people into the hands of British colonizers, but this is simply
not true. I know of not a single instance where the involvement of
anthropologists was intentional and significant to furthering the
process of colonization. Anthropologists then, like today, simply had
no outlet or power to create change of that scale even if they had
wanted to.
Good Luck,
Steve Butts
Faculty of Leisure and Tourism
Buckinghamshire Chilterns University College
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