About
I’m Bill Geddes, a retired anthropologist who has worked in the Pacific over the past 40 years. Over a reasonably lengthy lifetime (close on 70 years now) I have, time and again, felt it necessary to understand and explain the impact of capitalism on the non-Western communities I’ve lived in and tried to understand.
I guess if I had to choose a philosophy (May any existent transcendent being(s) forbid that I should do so unthinkingly!) it might be Pyrrhonic scepticism – but only in the sense of critically questioning those ideas and philosophies around me which are being most strongly and successfully promoted!
I don’t belong to any ‘organisations’ or groups – and, no, I don’t want to join any!!
My sincere hope is that what I write on this blog will encourage others to closely and critically examine any and all beliefs and philosophies to which they find themselves exposed – particularly those beliefs promoted by others with whom they identify.
The world increasingly needs independent, critical thinkers who are willing to closely examine any and all beliefs with which they might be in any way identified – in my case ‘capitalism’.
Here, we will post a range of articles exploring the nature of capitalism from an anthropological perspective.
These posts are aimed at understanding capitalism as one of the ways in which human beings organise reality and then think and interact with that reality, knowing that, because it is ‘reality’ it cannot reasonably be questioned.
The posts will compare and contrast the historical emergence of capitalism and its present form with other ways in which human beings organise and interact with their worlds. At the same time, they will introduce a few anthropological concepts which will be used in this exploration.
If the approach I adopt seems a trifle didactic – put that down to an old guy who has been teaching (between times of research and gathering little moss) since 1961. Forgive me where you can and positively critique my contributions - I will greatly enjoy that.
If you must, be gentle in your negativity – when all is said and done,
we live on the same planet, breathe the same air, and together, hope
for peace and wellbeing for ourselves and each other.
I look forward to sharing ideas with you.
