Longing for Arcadia by Harold Barclay

Author:Harold Barclay [Barclay, Harold]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Biography & Autobiography, General
ISBN: 9781412235518
Google: 0bCuEoeDXZwC
Publisher: Trafford Publishing
Published: 2007-05-07T23:58:23.130234+00:00

University Press. The thesis entitled “ An Ethno- graphic Study of a Suburban Village in the Sudan” was published as “Buurri al Lamaab: A Suburban Village in the Sudan” in 1964.

The University of Oregon was the first place I taught which was not largely composed of rich kids. Cornell, the American University at Cairo, and Knox were all primarily institutions for the upper class. But in actual fact I never noticed much difference in terms of academic ability because of class differences.

At Oregon I was in a department where I was in the company of a few anthropological notables, e.g., Homer Barnett, Luther Cressman and Albert Spaulding and they proved to be the most congenial of colleagues. The teaching load was less than at Knox, a reflection of the recognition of the significance of research and also of the role of a graduate degree program. I taught a course on Primitive Societies-a term I did not like because it seemed pejorative-and also one on the people of the Middle East. I directed a couple of BA honours theses and supervised a PhD candidate.

Graduate students were required to take qualifying examinations and faculty were asked

to contribute questions for these. David Aberle, a supporter of Leslie White’s theory of cultural evolution, was given the job of selecting appropriate questions. One I submitted, with tongue in cheek, asked for comment on the statement by David Bidney that Lesilie White’ s concept of culture was a form of animism. Aberle did not include the question in the examination.

The country was becoming more embroiled in the hostilities in Vietnam and we were led down the garden path by Lyndon Johnson whose campaign made him the “peace’candidate and portrayed Gold- water as the epitome of war mongering in the 1964 election. Primarily from fear of Goldwater, we voted for the first and only time and backed Johnson. It seems to me that American voters in 2004 might well consider the election of 1964 when we were all stampeded into supporting Johnson because he was allegedly so much superior to Goldwater when there was no difference. So today one should not be stampeded into voting for Kerry because he seems to be superior to Bush when in fact there is no difference.

We soon joined with others to form an anti- war group. The following year David Aberle was

instrumental in organizing a “teach-in” in which we participated.

That summer I was invited by Walter Lehn, director of the Middle Eastern program at the University of Texas, to teach a couple of courses on the area. I made the foolish mistake of merely informing the department chairman that I was going to Texas for the summer and the fall terms, rather than asking his permission. I apologized for my error and, receiving his blessing, proceeded to Texas.

At Texas we lived next to an Episcopalian minister who had been a Roman Catholic priest. For years he had carried on a double life as a practicing Catholic priest, while living with a woman who was a nun and who, during this clandestine period, had given him several children.

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