To explain why anthropology came so naturally for me, let me quote you one of my favorite anthropologists, Claude Levi-Strauss, who emphasized time and again that teaching and research are not to be confused with training for a profession. "In this opposition, on the one hand, the professions, and, on the other, ambiguous activities which can be classed either as a mission or a refuge, partake of both, but are always rather more definitely one than the other, anthropology certainly occupies an exceptional position. [...] While remaining human himself, the anthropologist tries to study and judge mankind from a point of view sufficiently lofty and remote to allow him to disregard the particular circumstances of a given society or civilization. The conditions in which he lives and works cut him off physically from his group for long periods; through being exposed to such complete and sudden changes of environment, he acquires a kind of chronic rootlessness; eventually, he comes to feel at home nowhere, and he remains psychologically maimed. Like mathematics or music, anthropology is one of the few genuine vocations. One can discover in it oneself, even though one may have been taught nothing about it." (Tristes Tropiques, p. 55, my italics - AB)

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