Theorist as an Authentic Person

As a "white," Turkish woman scholar working in the United States for the past two years,² the argument of "whiteness" Catherine Myser (2003) proposes for bioethics stimulated me to draw parallels with what I see as happening in two other disciplines I am involved in: anthropology and biomedicine.

Related to my own work, I will discuss the presentations of "whiteness" (or, in a very similar way, "American-ness," "Western-ness," or "European-ness," as they relate to the contexts of the research material) at different levels. One is similar to what Myser argues for "whiteness:" that "as a marker of location or position within a social, and here racial hierarchy" it shapes and reproduces "white" values and norms. I will extend Myser's argument beyond "race" to other biological/cultural identifications such as gender, ethnic background, religious affiliation, institutional training, as well as to openly-stated or concealed stakes/interests. I see the combination of these (and other) identifications and stakes as a matter-of-fact reality for the "authentic person." By "authentic person" or "her authentic voice," I mean the real person, with all her history, very personal qualities, sensibilities, wishes, sentiments, and so on, within or behind the sometimes visible (e.g., in social-science writings), sometimes totally invisible (e.g., in biomedical-science writings) scholarly person. Especially in the "hard sciences," such as biomedicine, this scholarly tailored person is carefully trained, crafted, and molded tohave a certain commonly accepted "disinterested/ detached" appearance. The problem, for me, is not that the authentic voice finds its way into the very theories (of science), because I find it almost impossible that it will not, but rather the denial of this situation and a pretense that it does not exist.

I am suggesting that our awareness of who we really are (in the sense of "knowing thyself"; Said 1979, 25) is crucial in deepening our understanding of the world and our practice. This suggestion is not new, of course, but the continued practice of the theorists of the more dominant culture of our times (that being the "West"), their seeming "unawareness" or—for those who believe they are aware—the general sentiment that "it was gotten over" prompted me to make my point. More specifically, I am interested in how "who we really are" plays into our production of knowledge and norms in a scientific discipline. By defi- nition, these influences are subconscious, but claims to conscious awareness of these influences—and therefore elimination of unwanted results—are several.³ However, it is important to note that the claims of awareness and the feelings of "gotten over it" are mostly expressed by those occupying the more dominant and powerful spheres.

Looking into anthropology, some may find the argument of "whiteness" or "Western-ness" banal, suggesting that anthropology has dealt enough (and maybe even excessively and compulsively) with the problems of method, theory, the role/position of the ethnographer, representation of the "other," the insider/outsider perspectives, the ways of engagement with the subject, the issue of objectivity, and so on (Clifford and Marcus 1986; Marcus and Fischer 1999). However, even though "self-disclosure" and "self-reflexivity" are critical conditions for the practice of ethnography (Kleinman 1999)—and even though anthropology still holds the promise

to offer worthwhile and interesting critiques of our own society; to enlighten us about other human possibilities, engendering an awareness that we are merely one pattern among many; to make accessible the normally unexamined assumptions by which we operate and through which we encounter members of other cultures (Marcus and Fischer 1999, ix)

The knowledge produced is not immune to human conditions and interests (personal, political, etc.) and is at least partially susceptible to the consequences of being mostly practiced by "Western" scientists. Despite the fact that Marcus and Fischer speak of "new anthropologies in Brazil, India, Israel, Japan and Mexico, among other countries&quot...