Thread by @swardley

Lazyweb ... I'm looking for a paper or study covering an anthropological analysis of the rituals, codification and symbolism of anthropologists. Any recommendations?

A bit like the map of mapping, what I'm after is a better understanding of how anthropologists apply the same anthropological techniques to study themselves.

i.e. linguistics or physical or cultural anthropology ... any of these forms of analysis applied to anthropologists themselves.

X : You have a map of mapping?
Me : err ... yes. I mean, any system of study which can't be applied to itself is next to useless isn't it? If I couldn't map mapping then I would have thrown it away 14 years ago and kept looking.

... that doesn't mean that the system of study is ever complete or true. Maps for example are imperfect and ultimately wrong. There will be limits to the system and things which exist outside it. But within those constraints a system to explore should be able to explore itself.

It's like maths ... it has constraints, the models are never complete and true but within those constraints we can certainly use maths to discover more maths. Gosh, the idea of a system of study not being able to study itself just seems so bizarre to me.

It would be like the following conversation.

Me : What are you doing?
X : Archaeology.
Me : I thought you said you were a mathematician?
X : Oh yes but you can't discover new maths with maths. We use Archaeology.
Me : Are you sure you're not an Archaeologist?