I wasn't slamming Murra. It's possible that the book's value exceeded its down-side. I think Murra was one of the best profs I had at Yale.
On 10/7/07, Louis Proyect <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Jim Devine wrote: > > When I was taking frosh anthropology at Yale 1970 or 1971, the prof, > > J.V. Murra (reputed to be a leftist) assigned a book, titled (I > > believe) "Life in the Barrio." It was a an example of "applied > > anthropology" (for either Venezuela or Colombia), in which > > anthro-tools were applied to tell the government how to control the > > barrio. > > I am not sure about what this says about Murra. I have read him on Inca > society and found it quite useful, especially in contextualizing the > kind of tribute that was extracted by the ruling class (it was minor > compared to European feudalism). > > I will be blogging about anthropology and imperialism later today, btw. > -- Jim Devine / "The truth is at once less sinister and more dangerous." -- Naomi Klein.
