David Graeber Reminded Us of the Political Value of Anthropology It makes other worlds possible.

by Alpa Shah
3 September 2021


People often ask me, “What came first for David Graeber; his anthropology or his politics?” I always find myself stumbling a bit in response, mumbling under my breath that this is almost an unanswerable question. But reflecting a year after our dear friend and colleague left us, it seems to me to be a question worth answering.

Undoubtedly, by the time I met him at a job panel at Goldsmiths university in 2007, David felt his politics had got in the way of his life in the institutions of anthropology – by which I mean the educational institutes, the universities and departments that employed people and labelled them ‘anthropologists’. David saw his dismissal from Yale university in 2005 as a direct result of the role he played in the 2000-2001 Global Justice Movement, as well as his support for a student organiser in the graduate student unionisation campaign at the university in 2005.

Appointments and search committees thereafter worried about whether David would be running around corridors ‘making trouble’ and, as a result, in the US, he never even made the first cut for interviews, despite making more than 20 applications.

When he interviewed at Goldsmiths, we welcomed David with open arms, knowing he would fit perfectly in our little community. We took pride in giving refuge to misfits, seeing ourselves as being on the creative margins of what was already a marginal discipline.

More:
https://novaramedia.com/2021/09/03/david-graeber-reminded-us-of-the-political-value-of-anthropology/