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Introduction Anthropology is unique among the social sciences in that it typically recruits from among the marginalized, those of us uncomfortable with conformity , suspicious of rituals that others take for granted, and frequently uneasy around people whom history has dictated as being like ourselves. Anthropology as an academic enterprise, whether one views it as a science or one of the humanities , is a window on the opportunities provided by diversity, a perspective for understanding one’s own marginalization, and ultimately a quest for meaning and search for self. In many ways the anthropologist in the ¤eld can be seen as a troubled soul seeking for a new identity, a supplicant in a pith helmet, or a novitiate seeking truth in the guise of phonemes and kinship terms. I am convinced that this uncertainty is what is most genuine about our curiosity , what leads us to ask the right questions, and what helps to ensure a certain level of objectivity. It is this sense of not having answers that generates an interest in the answers of others. The marginalization is the unarticulated motive behind the anthropological quest. The uncertainty is the will to learn. In this regard, the anthropologist is predisposed to be a true student of culture—a learner ¤rst and myth-teller second. For this reason, I agree with Halperin (1996:4) that one of the weaknesses inherent in anthropology’s current preoccupation with the other as victim of political and economic suffering is that it diminishes or supplants the thrill, the satisfaction, or the astonishment of enlightenment. It is the experience I sometimes describe as “the moment of Aha!” As Halperin suggests, anthropologists should be about the “search for new perspectives to individual and cultural problems through exploring societies beyond their own” (1996:4). Subsequently, as we, the anthropologists, tell our stories, either by design or by default, we internalize the lessons and reshape our own lives. The experience 13 American Indian Life and the 21st-Century University The “Playful Worldview” and Its Lessons for Leadership in Higher Education Kendall Blanchard of living the other, of recording the details, and of describing that experience for others gives new meaning to our marginalization. It also arms us with new ideas, new answers, and new solutions. In so doing, the experience prepares us—and, by extension, our students—for leadership in a world made smaller by communication technology yet larger by the new immediacy of its diversity. My quest as an anthropologist began in the library. Late in my undergraduate career, I discovered the works of Teilhard de Chardin, Loren Eiseley, W. W. Howells , and Weston La Barre. From here it was to my ¤rst class in anthropology with Ron Spores at Vanderbilt. Several years later I found myself at the end of my graduate course work at Southern Methodist looking for a ¤eld setting and problem for my dissertation research. I had assumed I would be working with my adviser, Ben Wallace, on a project he was directing in the Philippines. However, the funding that would have supported me on that project did not materialize. I still had some of my National Defense Education Act fellowship, was intrigued by the work of the Ramah Project, and with encouragement from Jack Roberts and Robert Rapoport struck out on my own for Navajo country to follow up on Rapoport’s (1954) studies of religious change that he had conducted in the early 1950s (Blanchard 1977). After completing my graduate work, I moved to Tennessee and my ¤rst full-time teaching position. Subsequently, I was asked to serve on the board of an organization headquartered in Nashville called the Southeastern Indian Antiquities Society. Phillip Martin, tribal chair of the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians, was also a member of that board. He invited me to Mississippi. I went. Over the next few years, with help from members of the Choctaw community, assistance from tribal employees such as Marty Gamblin, and encouragement from anthropologist John Peterson and others, I got involved in the life of the Choctaw community (Blanchard 1981). During my years in higher education, my work with various special-interest groups has provided many opportunities to visit, work in, and experience the Native American community . These groups have included the Tennessee Indian Association, United Southeastern Tribes, the Save the Children American Nations Program, the Sequoyah Institute, and the Institute for First Americans. In sum, these experiences , particularly those in the South, have had a profound impact on my life, my worldview...

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