{"id":475,"date":"2021-05-06T14:55:25","date_gmt":"2021-05-06T02:55:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.otago.ac.nz\/anthnav\/?page_id=475"},"modified":"2021-05-06T14:55:25","modified_gmt":"2021-05-06T02:55:25","slug":"values-and-vision","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/blogs.otago.ac.nz\/anthnav\/about-social-anth\/values-and-vision\/","title":{"rendered":"Values and Vision"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cWe\u2019re all curious about the ways other people live their lives,\u201d one social anthropology student in this video<\/a> says.<\/p>\n

Anthropology provides a whole set of tools for thinking about the diversity of ways of living, in a rapidly changing world (as this professor<\/a> discusses).<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Ruth Benedict, 1937. Source: Library of Congress.<\/p><\/div>\n

American anthropologist Ruth Benedict is often quoted as saying the purpose of anthropology is \u201cmaking the world safe for human differences.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

This includes revealing trends of social inequality, discrimination, and \u2018othering\u2019, that are historical, and ongoing. As urban anthropologist Professor Diego Vigil describes in this 4 min video,<\/a> anthropologists are well-equipped to help address real social issues.<\/p>\n

We asked a bunch of our undergraduate social anthropology students at the University of Otago<\/a> what they would take with them as core lessons from social anthropology, and overwhelmingly they\u00a0 responded with three things. These were: empathy<\/strong>, open-mindedness,<\/strong> and appreciation of difference<\/strong>. These are pretty powerful forces in the world. As one student summed it up:<\/p>\n

\u201cIt allows for compassion and rich experiences of difference that are truly useful to everyday attempts to be better as a person. Not every discipline is as compelling or helpful with being part of a social world.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

In the graduate stories<\/a> presented on the ASAA\/NZ website, you can read a variety of postgrad students talking more about what drew them to social anthropology, and how the field fits with their wider goals and interests.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cWe\u2019re all curious about the ways other people live their lives,\u201d one social anthropology student in this video says. Anthropology provides a whole set of tools for thinking about the diversity of ways of living, in a rapidly changing world […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":32972,"featured_media":0,"parent":23,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-475","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.otago.ac.nz\/anthnav\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/475","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.otago.ac.nz\/anthnav\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.otago.ac.nz\/anthnav\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.otago.ac.nz\/anthnav\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/32972"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.otago.ac.nz\/anthnav\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=475"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.otago.ac.nz\/anthnav\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/475\/revisions"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.otago.ac.nz\/anthnav\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/23"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.otago.ac.nz\/anthnav\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=475"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}