Saturday, October 15, 2016

no book in it

Harvard Divinity School is 200 this year, and its walls are covered with exhibits celebrating their achievements in various fields. The section on history and anthropology includes this exquisite excerpt from New Zealand ethnographer and poet Michael Jackson. A lovely admission of humility before the practices of another culture, a worry about "describing them with words / they would not use," and a chastened but charmed self-understanding as working with, alongside, his research subjects.