Academic politics and savage minds

Have learned of recent scandals that have called attention to the corruption and petty politics that have infected academic anthropology (and further undermined its already faltering credibility). Apparently, self-proclaimed anarchist and activist David Graeber (author of Debt: The First 5,000 Years among other books) has pushed a bit too hard to have colleagues removed with whom he disagrees politically. See the accounting of this in:

How David Graeber Cancelled a Colleague
by Claire Lehmann

https://quillette.com/2019/09/09/the-anarchist-and-the-anthropology-journal/

The scandal centers on the open-access journal HAU: Journal of Ethnographic Theory

https://www.haujournal.org/index.php/hau

Apparently, the journal has been undergoing some editorial and structural changes, changes which have upset David Graeber and respecting which Graeber has made cause to fabricate all kinds of allegations to destroy the journal's founder's reputation and professional standing. (Graeber, let it be said, knows quite a bit about the old "tit-for-tat" in economic and social relations: i.e., the art, let's say, of paying "debts." He, quite literally, wrote a book on the topic.)

This is all very unfortunate, not least because David Graeber has actually proven himself quite capable of producing meaningful and provocative historical and anthropological analysis. Perhaps he might think about redirecting his energies toward the more profitable ends of legitimate scholarship. Just a thought.

Will return to this matter soon with more detailed commentary. This kind of character assassination is the new norm and its effects on scholarship and scientific credibility have been quite deleterious. It really is a very serious problem.

Has been so for much longer than I had been aware. Its effects are chilling and very reminiscent of Soviet purges in the 1930s and 40s. One does begin to wonder just how bad things might get. Answer: very bad, almost always worse.

To be continued...