archive

At Literature and Politics there's a discussion of Lawrence of Arabia and Mohammed Atta (Nihilism in the Middle East), and at Encounter Essays there's a study of what happened when social science took over the word 'culture' (When I Hear the Word 'Culture: from Arnold to Anthropology). Anthropological Farce examines our reasons for romanticising tribal life (Face-Lifting the Stone Age), and describes a misleading but popular ethnographic portrayal of West Africa (Amazing Dahomey).

Anti-Science Follies reviews Gross and Levitt's book Higher Superstition (Science and Superstition), and discusses Lewis Wolpert's The Unnatural Nature of Science (Unnatural Science). Related articles elsewhere at this site are Science and the Greeks and Science and Consensus. The evidence of photographic records as clues to physical reality is the subject of Objective Graphics.

Aboriginal Policy questions the attempt to eternally preserve traditional Aboriginal life as a publicly funded cultural protectorate (An Australian Dilemma), and discusses the romantic link between Aborigines and Australian pastoral life (Pastoral Romance and Indigenous Realities). A later and related article asks whether it is realistic to see Aborigines as a permanent and indissoluble unity of People, Land, and Culture (In Bluebeard's Castles).

General includes a satirical view of New Zealand in the 1980s (New New Zealand), while Theatre Reviews contains discussions of the ressentiment theme in Richard III, of the travesties of Strindberg and Shakespeare to be found on the modern stage (Fixing Strindberg), and of the work of the British playwright Tom Stoppard (Tom Stoppard's Progress, and Updating Tom Stoppard).

Literature and Politics
Encounter Essays
Anthropological Farce
Anti-Science Follies
Aboriginal Policy
General
Theatre Reviews