What lay inside a box of ashes certainly used to be a person, but one who had now been reduced to an object. A person-object, if you will. No culture, not even mine, is indifferent to human remains. Kin or foe, valorized or denied, dehumanized or objectified, we still have to come to some decision about what to do with what remains. And so, I am obliged, once more, to find a place for my father in my life.
The juxtaposition between reliance on Noah’s anthropological skills and the presumed lack of relevance this discipline has to broader society ultimately makes for good comedy. Reading the subtext in this relationship we see the value which Noah brings. Without Noah’s anthropological skills, Archer would never be Pirate King. I would even go so far as to suggest that Noah’s anthropological training, including his linguistic skills, are why he alone, amongst the rest of his research vessel crew, is alive, and still enslaved by the pirates.
Diversity according to whiteness is not about who should occupy the spaces of public discourse, so much as it is about who should have the power to decide who occupies the spaces of public discourse.
Betty White made a cameo in the first episode of season two in the hugely popular US sitcom Community, rocking the role of anthropology Professor June Bauer. Described by the writers and publicized by the Hollywood Reporter as “an esteemed, albeit slightly unhinged, anthropology professor,” Prof. Bauer typifies one widespread perception of anthropologists.