[INDOLOGY] "Pots don't speak", nor do they vote

[Jesse Knutson]

I disagree. A project can be as racist as a person.  I agree however that
the battle should be fought on scholarly grounds, yet it is important to
maintain a critical awareness that scholarship is not neutral and always
maintains political implications. This should be obvious today from the
work of (whatever their limitations) Edward Said, Pierre Bourdieu, etc.,
who conducted thoroughgoing critiques of the notion of neutrality and
disinterestedness in scholarship. To identify a thought process or
intellectual project as racist does not necessarily imply that it should be
censored.  Again it is best combatted on the scholarly-intellectual ground
where it is launched. Rather it is about cultivating a critical awareness
and perspective, with which empirical research can become less meaningful.

On Mon, Jun 15, 2015 at 9:41 AM, Dean Michael Anderson <
eastwestcultural at yahoo.com> wrote:

> I have created this new thread because I will acquiesce to the wishes of
> those who don't wish to talk more about the IVC. There is, however, a
> broader methodological issue that I feel needs to be addressed.
> Michael Witzel is fond of quoting his teacher "pots don't speak". And, I
> would add: they don't have a race either.
> The main point of which I wish to remind people is well-stated by
> Stephanie Jamison, Professor of Indo-Iranian Literature, UCLA; translator
> of Rig Veda (along with Joel Brereton):
> "For we must not confuse movements of languages with movements of peoples.
> Languages can spread to new territories in a number of ways, only one of
> which is through the migration (or "invasion") of people who speak the
> language."
> As with languages, so with cultures: they don't have a race. The same can
> be said of academic research: the theorists may be racists but the objects
> of study are not (languages, cultures, pots) .
> Numerous scholars on this list, like Hans Hock, have pointed out quite
> convincingly the shortcomings of the Out of India theories. Any competing
> theories will have to address those issues, which has not been done; but
> they should have the freedom to try. As I mentioned before, the study of
> the effect of ideology on objective research is a different topic
> altogether; and a valid one. They should not be conflated.
> To brand a particular field of objective academic research off-limits by
> declaring it racist or chauvinist is not only making this mistake, it is
> also quite troubling from the viewpoint of academic freedom.
> Best,
> Dean Anderson
> ----
>  Jamison, Stephanie. 2006. “Bryant, Edward F. & Laurie L. Patton, Eds.,
> The Indo-Aryan Controversy: Evidence and Inference in Indian History
> (2005). Reviewed by Jamison, Stephanie W.” *Journal of Indo-European
> Studies* 34: 255ff. Can be downloaded at:
> http://www.safarmer.com/Indo-Eurasian/Bryant_Patton.review.pdf
>
>
> ------------------------------
>  *From:* Jesse Knutson <jknutson at hawaii.edu>
> *To:* Dean Michael Anderson <eastwestcultural at yahoo.com>
> *Cc:* "Hock, Hans Henrich" <hhhock at illinois.edu>; Matthew Kapstein <
> mkapstei at uchicago.edu>; George Thompson <gthomgt at gmail.com>; Indology
> List <indology at list.indology.info>
> *Sent:* Monday, June 15, 2015 3:08 AM
> *Subject:* Re: [INDOLOGY] Article about the politics surrounding Indology
> at the IHRC
>
> Yet I still think it's correct to call Hindutva and Bharavaj's project
> racist, albeit implicitly and convolutedly so, because there is an implicit
> judgment of racial superiority. And chauvinism/triumphalism rarely come in
> some kind of pure form, free of a racist sediment. Explicit racism is
> highly tolerated in right-wing political/academic circles in India today as
> you all know. It might be a more confusing type of racism for us to
> disentangle because it is not as black and white, involving complex
> judgments about people's origins via caste, language, and way of life etc.
> But racism is very real both in life and "scholarship".
>
> --
> Jesse Ross Knutson PhD
> Assistant Professor of Sanskrit and Bengali, Department of Indo-Pacific
> Languages and Literatures
> University of Hawai'i at Mānoa
> 452A Spalding
>
>
>


-- 
Jesse Ross Knutson PhD
Assistant Professor of Sanskrit and Bengali, Department of Indo-Pacific
Languages and Literatures
University of Hawai'i at Mānoa
452A Spalding


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