From a link of Peter Farrell's
From: Linda Clemens
Date: Thu Feb 12, 2004 12:48 pm
Subject: From a link of Peter Farrell's
Peter, I have enjoyed the readings you've
linked regarding laterality and the brain, and my attention was
drawn to a quote in Ethology and Evolution from Vincent Sarich,
a former professor of mine.
But my point now has nothing to do with handedness and the brain
but to do with the explosive issues of racism, and whether Steiner's
ideas imply that Waldorf is a racist system of education.
Vincent Sarich is an anthropologist whose biggest contributions
to the field came from associating findings in biochemistry to
human evolution. Until recent decades the "science"
of physical anthropology, which began just before Steiner, explored
extensively issues of race and morphology, race and evolution,
etc. What this involves, by definition, are sweeping generalizations
about racial characteristics, comparing them, devising theories
to explain them, and attributing these differences to some point
on an evolutionary time frame. I studied this stuff, and I'm
not exaggerating when I say that the field was absolutely awash
with strange stuff that we'd laugh at today. Scientists were
studying everything from ear wax to foot arches and making goofy
theories about such things as why some peoples have grey ear
wax and others have yellow. But this is science. And goofiness
like this at one time made perfect sense to these scientists.
And even today, physical anthropologists can't really be said
to have denounced all this stuff--instead, they're more accurately
described as having grown from it. Often in science, it's understood
that ideas like these can make a certain sense and advance our
quest for understanding, even though in later years we've decide
the theories aren't true.
Anyway, back to Vincent Sarich. Vincent Sarich
some years ago attracted what the academic community would call
the "PC police". Yes, even in the sciences, these racism
"bombs" are falling on all sides, and he became a target
because he wrote about race differences in the context of physical
anthropology and human evolution, and the PC position these days
is that race differences is an off-limits subject except in terms
of political/social or cultural inequalities. This of course
requires everyone to pretend that there are no differences whatsoever
between people on this planet except for sociological inheritances.
This is a patently absurd idea to anyone who believes in human
evolution, which is a subdiscipline of physical anthropology.
Evolution is a biological inheritance, shaped by adaptive response
to the environment. If you can't discuss inherited biological
differences, there's nothing to talk about period rofl!
So in a nutshell, if studying race in anthropology
is termed "racism" and thus off limits, the study of
human evolution is pointless. If discussions of race differences
are limited to the cultural/sociological/political arena, then
we've determined the issue off limits in science. And if the
validity of evolutionary science is to be judged on the totality
of what it has produced on the subject in the past one hundred
years, then the deal is sealed. Using the argument as applied
against Waldorf, once must conclude human evolution, and by association,
all of anthropology, are racist sciences and parents of prospective
students must be told this.
In my mind, this is absurd. It's also absurd
to arbitrarily apply this standard to Rudolf Steiner and Waldorf
education alone. It was absurd the witch hunt that Vincent Sarich
endured, regardless of whether his ideas will eventually prove
to be as goofy as the exploration into the evolution of ear wax.
And it certainly accomplishes nothing to waste lifetimes in stupid
arguments about whether somebody's a racist or not simply because
they have what you consider goofy theories about where skin color
comes from. Racism is a practice, a behavior, the using of prejudgements
as an excuse for disparate treatment of people.
L
...................................................................................................................................
From: Mike Helsher
Date: Thu Feb 12, 2004 2:00 pm
Subject: Re: [anthroposophy_tomorrow] From a link of Peter Farrell's
Dear Linda,
Wow, thanks for that...
Truth and Love
Mike
Peter, I have enjoyed the readings you've
linked regarding laterality and the brain, and my attention was
drawn to a quote in Ethology and Evolution from Vincent Sarich,
a former professor of mine.
But my point now has nothing to do with handedness and the brain
but to do with the explosive issues of racism, and whether Steiner's
ideas imply that Waldorf is a racist system of education.
<snip>
...................................................................................................................................
From: Linda Clemens
Date: Thu Feb 12, 2004 2:12 pm
Subject: Thanks, Mike n/t
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