COMING OF AGE IN ANTHROPOLOGY

In the early twentieth century, when Anthropology was still in its infancy, anthropologist Margaret Mead ventured into Polynesia and wrote a seminal book called Coming of Age in Samoa, followed shortly thereafter by a second ethnography called Growing Up in New Guinea. At the time, fieldwork studies that reported on these relatively isolated communities added greatly to our knowledge of the little known and even less understood so-called “primitive” cultures. Taken together, they allowed us to formulate new theories about culture and to test out our ideas about human society.

We are now in the early twenty-first century, and Anthropology is faced with a new reality. The world has evolved from a myriad of diverse and isolated villages into a single global community. And while it continues to be useful to know about the parts, the pressing concern for the discipline at this stage is how the parts relate to the whole. That is the focus of the present collection of commentaries.

Both the title Coming of Age in Anthropology and subtitle Commentaries on Growing Up in the Global Village borrow from the titles of Dr. Mead’s original works. The similarity is intentional, and more than a simple play on words. For in less than a century, the world has transformed from a globe of villages to a global village. Whereas before it seemed we could go about our lives without undue concern for people on the other side of the planet, we are now forced to recognize that what we do in one part of the world affects every other part. We are one interrelated and interdependent social system.

It is time to “come of age” in—and to—this new global reality, and Anthropology, as the study of humankind, is particularly well positioned to serve as the principal vehicle for achieving this challenging task. Anthropology offers a framework for critically examining our economic, political and ideological institutions so that we might better decide how to have a world. The choice is clear: either we learn to “grow up” together, or we do not get to grow up at all.

Twenty commentaries are offered to this end, selected from a series of lectures, television interviews, retrospectives and informal talks I have offered to various audiences over a period spanning three decades—from 1980 to 2010—beginning with “Am I an Anthropologist Yet?”, a reflection on what it means to be an anthropologist. From that starting point, the subject matter mirrors the familiar anthropological categories Margaret Mead included in her seminal work: family relationships, community life, education, religion, and the role of the dance. But in the present case, those familiar categories take on new meaning and reach into new dimensions. The family is the human family, all seven billion of us, and the commentaries, like “Positive Prejudice” and “Booked for Lunch”, focus on our ethnic relations. The community is the global community—the global village—and I have included a number of talks, such as “Sit and Sing—and Surrender to God” about cross-cultural understanding and development aid. Education, like “May a Little Child Lead You” and “A Four-Letter Word” is about the need for global education. Religion looks at the clash of ideologies and religious fundamentalism as well as the essential unity of all religions, and the most lengthy article—perhaps deservedly so—“Missing and Presumed Dead” falls in this category; it is a lecture I presented on the infamous and deadly terrorist attack of “nine-eleven”. The role of the dance is the movement of our national and international life. Included here are talks about cultural phenomena such as world expositions and Olympic games, large-scale events that engender worldwide attention and have global significance. I have also directed attention to my own native land, reflecting on our socio-cultural institutions, the treatment of Canada’s indigenous peoples and the so-called Canadian unity crisis. In spite of the wide variety of subject matter, the goal is singular: to foster and enhance cross-cultural understanding in order that we may together create a more peaceful world.

While Margaret Mead inspired the title and subtitle of the present volume, I am indebted to many good minds for the ideas expressed in the various commentaries. Among those writers who must be named are preeminent figures like Karl Marx and C.G. Jung, along with Fritjof Capra, Eric Fromm and Paul Ricoeur. I would especially like to add the names of Martin Buber, Karen Armstrong and Ken Wilber. Anyone familiar with the works of the above will recognize my indebtedness to these outstanding thinkers. I would be remiss by not also including the many people in the various educational and development agencies who have invited me to be a part of their world; I have gained a great deal by my associations with them. And finally, I want to express my deepest thanks to Ken Johnson, editor, partner and best friend, whose sustained support in every way has allowed me the privilege of writing and publishing this volume and many other creative works.