I am taking ANT2301: Human Sexuality this semester, and I am learning a great deal about sexuality from an Anthropological, Evolutionary, Cross-Cultural perspective grounded in scientific research conducted via sampling, interviews, surveys, observation, field-work, experimentation, case studies, and laboratory research. (What a mouthful!)
This is all very fascinating to me, especially now as I am working on writing a paper for the class. So it gets me thinking about things that are kind of off-topic and sometimes critical of the perspectives used in the book and in the class.
One conclusion that occurred to me just now is that these Anthropologists would likely OK something such as file-sharing along all the same grounds that they OK homosexuality.
How Anthropologists determine that something (like homosexuality) is OK --
1. They'd look to the animal kingdom. Other animals have been found that have been observed doing homosexual acts.
2. They'd look to other cultures and societies. Homosexuality has been acceptable and even embraced in other cultures throughout the globe and throughout History.
3. They would look past current or Historical laws that address the issue. 'These are just temporal social controls that have no bearing on the inherent acceptability of the issue.'
Perhaps there are other ways that I am missing, but that seems to be how Anthropologists have come to the conclusion that homosexuality is OK.
Now, using that standard we can apply it to this relatively new issue of file-sharing, which is stealing the right to use a song, movie, or software.
1. Animal Kingdom. Yeah, animals of all species can be observed taking things without delivering payment. One bear can catch a salmon and another might come up and take it away. Or, some hyena may run down a gazelle -- only to have the food stolen by a passing lion.
2. Other Cultures throughout the world and History. Check. Microsoft has major beef with China because they make ridiculous numbers (duh! China...) of uncompensated for copies of their software. They do it to music, video and other software too. Also, the Vikings would often take stuff from the towns that they raided.
3. Looking past the mores of the day. OK, well, right now we feel like it is bad to take software, music, and movies without somehow paying for the use of them, but when you look past that it suddenly becomes...
OK
Not sure I'd agree; 1 and 2 apply to flat out theft in general which is unrelated to this argument, and not the point you want to make anyway; no one is suggesting that theft in general is good because animals or the vikings did it, right? Besides, P2P is not theft. It is infringement of copyright. Not the same thing.
Posted by: Jordan at February 19, 2004 11:39 AM