The Current Tragedies

[Richard J. Senghas]

Hello Linganth Folk,

No doubt many of you are still dealing with a wave of complex reactions to
the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. To our colleagues in
New York City: I imagine this has been an horrific experience. I hope you
all are safe and sound.

I believe we anthropologists have an opportunity to make a very positive
contribution right now. I'm interested in hearing about what analyses that
some of you might be doing on the current crisis involving the terrorist
attacks on US targets. Anything worth sharing? Has anyone got pointers to
good materials to use to help (lay) folk make sense of this whole thing? I'm
particularly interested in resources anyone might be using for undergraduate
coursework.

I'm finding one of my biggest challenges this week is getting people to
recognize that these actions can't be simultaneously well-coordinated and
executed attacks AND be merely senseless violence. The trick is how to
present the various positions as understandable (I'm saying nothing about
excusable at this point) so that we can work for structural changes that
could prevent the likelihood that anyone would resort to    such brutal
forms of "communication". Also, I find myself worrying about the possibility
of misdirected backlash against minority groups and positions. How do we
prevent escalation of the violence? The stakes have been far too high for
far too long; we must circumvent this feedback loop.

To our many subscribers outside of the US: what's the view of all this from
where you are?

And finally, as list administrator, I take the liberty of offering this list
as a channel of support for any of you directly affected by the these
tragedies. Feel free to put out calls for assistance, especially if your
needs might draw on subscribers professional expertise in cross-cultural and
communicative.

Peace,

-Richard
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Richard J Senghas, Assoc Professor       | Sonoma State University
Department of Anthropology/Linguistics   | 1801 East Cotati Avenue
Coordinator, Linguistics & TESL Programs | Rohnert Park, CA 94928-3609
Richard.Senghas at sonoma.edu               | 707-664-3920 (fax)