Survey Results

Teaching the Canon

This survey received 5 responses from 3 countries: Australia, Brazil, Uganda

Question 1 asked Who are, according to you, the seminal scholars in the anthropological canon?

This was a free-response question. Responses said:

  • European classics are still important at the same time that new canons have emerged in order to diversify the discipline. (Brazil)
  • I do not subscribe to the idea of seminal scholars. Seminal ideas are another matter, but they are more often initially found at the margins. (Australia)
  • Mary Douglas, Talal Asad, Evans Pritchard, Ruth Benedict, Georges Balandier. (Uganda)
  • Mary Douglas, Talal Asad, Evans Pritchard, Ruth Benedict, Georges Balandier. (Uganda)
  • Claude Lévi-Strauss, Clifford Geertz, Mary Douglas (Brazil)

Question 2 asked Does your/the anthropological canon include knowledge producers from your region/country?

This was a free-response question. Responses said:

  • Yes, many. (Brazil)
  • Included. (Australia)
  • yes (Uganda)
  • yes (Uganda)
  • No (Brazil)

Question 3 asked Does your/the anthropological canon include knowledge producers that write in your language?

This was a free-response question. Responses said:

  • Yes, many. (Brazil)
  • Yes (Australia)
  • No (Uganda)
    Original Text
    no
  • No (Uganda)
    Original Text
    no
  • No (Brazil)

Question 4 asked How would you change the anthropological canon if you could? What thinker(s) or work(s) would you add?

This was a free-response question. Responses said:

  • Canon is not the best word for challenging hegemonic traditions. I would say that, in Brazil, for instance, we have our own classics such as Antonio Candido, Florestan Fernandes, Ruth Cardoso, Roberto Cardoso de Oliveira, Heloisa Alberto Torres, Lélia Gonzalez, amongst others, to mention but the a few who are do not live anymore. (Brazil)
  • I think we should diversify to include scholars outside the anglosphere. (Australia)
  • go to sources in Arabic about the question of difference: al-Jahidh, for example. (Uganda)
  • go to sources in Arabic about the question of difference: al-Jahidh, for example. (Uganda)
  • Fredrik Barth, Françoise Héritier, Cora DuBois (Brazil)

Return to survey list