Anthropologize

For the record, I didn’t fall in love with Montreal. It’s got nothin’ on London, or Minneapolis. But I did rediscover a couple of anthropological loves I’d forgotten. And realized that I have been, and am, a better anthropologist than I’d thought. I’m looking forward to some new chapters.

1. There is something about anthropology that hates money. (big topic of conversation, this “money” these days)

2. It feels right to be critical of corproations… so can an anthropologist avoid being co-opted by the corporate culture to maintain their analysis?

3. The objective of anthropological research for branding is inherently different than the (traditional) objective of anthropological research for academia… knowledge vs. change. Some of us have the desire to “transform environments that are desperately in need of transformation.” Amen. I look forward to the time when transformative anthropology is less limited to corporations. The world is in desperate need of transformation- and anthropologists can be capable agents of change, if they are willing to act as such. (So, again, where are our public intellectuals??)

4. Where do belief and labor interact in a corporation?

5. We are having a lovers quarrel with the word “consumer.”  I loved Ken Erickson’s presentation on Walmart because I also wish we talked more about people, and cringe every time at the word consumer… To consume means “to burn up”- but that’s not what happens to a DVD when you purchase it at Kmart. You watch it. You gift it. You store it. But you don’t consume it.

6. Brands can connect people with their optimistic selves. They are agents of optimism, aspiration and identity. Brands are agents of HOPE. Ideas and movements need brands, as agents of hope and change, as much as- or more than- products do.

Looking very much forward to seeing you all in San Fran next year