First and foremost, I want to thank you for taking the time and caring so much to write out your thoughts and criticisms so carefully. We, and I particularly, welcome honest dialogue -- and while (as you might imagine) it was difficult to read the letter, having poured so much of my own heart into the Imagining Ourselves project, I really welcomed the opportunity to understand and honor your point of view. Not only do we thank you for your perspective -- we welcome the debate. |
| | As for addressing the specific concerns you lay out in your letter: You write lucidly and compellingly about some very important aspects of the downside of globalization, especially on indigenous cultures-- debates about which, as a social anthropologist, I am very well-versed. |
| | As an editor, it was my responsibility to exercise a unifying hand and vision for the Imagining Ourselves project-- one that celebrates the accomplishments of our generation and is upbeat in tone; as you correctly identify, many of the accomplishments were indeed cast in terms of greater integration of young women in the 'formal' economy (and I put formal in quotes in respect of your point that such language could mistakenly imply that traditional modes of labor are of lesser value). |
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