Gaussian anthropology

[halfjack]

Either everything is deeply interrelated or there are ideas whose time has come or, perhaps, I see patterns where there aren't any. I say this because whenever I read two or three interesting things in a row, no matter how diverse, I see ways in which they are saying the same thing. Perhaps I have a gift for synthesis.

Comments

Gaussian Anthropology

[koala_bob]

It took a while to sink in (apparently about the length of time it takes to clean a bathroom), but I just now understand the main point of your 'Gaussian Anthropology' synthesis. What you say is true, there is a very strong correlation between theoretical perspectives and statistical models. The 'traditional' perspective as you call it (we call it 'processual' e.g., cultural ecology, marxism etc..), is based on a 'normative' view of culture -- that is the view that within any cultural tradition/system there are 'normal' ways of doing things, that the majority of the participants are consciously or unconsciously influenced/controlled by and drawn to. Whereas more recent ('post-processual' [read 'post-modern']; e.g., agency, critical theory, post structuralism) theoretical perspectives challenge that notion and propose that 'norms' don't really exist. This is analogous and perhaps related to the rejection of the Gaussian distribution (commonly called the 'normal distribution') as a mathematical model of behaviour.

This is really clever. I teach courses in quantitative methods and theory and yet have never really noticed this connection.

Re: Gaussian Anthropology

[halfjack]

Well it's a fortunate collision between recent reading (Taleb) and the papers on agency you sent me. Any more than another week or so between them and it probably wouldn't have occurred to me. Another black swan, in a sense -- I wonder how much connectivity we miss because we read intrinsically connected things only a little too far apart.

Re: Gaussian Anthropology

[halfjack]

Or because we tend to read obviously related material and not enough disparate material.