sardine -- pre-9/26 -- ps: baudrillard

Thank you to my babysitter; I am finally catching up. Yes, I am still pissed off. And now for a note on this week’s readings:

“In order for ethnology to live, its object must die; by dying, the object takes revenge for being 'discovered' and with its death defies the science that wants to grasp it” (Baudrillard, p. 457).

It is science itself that assumes the pretense of authentic objectivity. I will put you under a microscope and objectively objectify you. Because I am Scientist, I can also objectify myself without subjectification. What power it is to objectify! Those who objectify also define.

“Ethnology” in itself is rather ridiculous concept. No longer is it mere anthropology, ethnology takes a step further into a meta objectivity.

I, the Ethnologist, will step into your culture. We will both be subject. I will objectively subjectify you through your own eyes. Now I will take notes for a thesis I will try to build a career on. I will objectively subjectify your sexual practices, your cannibalism, your language, your rituals, your war making, your religious beliefs, your genital mutilations, and your medicine.

Ooops! Excuse me for that sneeze and the streptococcal droplets with which I just decimated half your population. Now I will go home and write theory.

Baudrillard is yummy!