--- title: "Meaning & Key Takeaway of: Anthropology has always struggled with an…" description: "\"Anthropology has always struggled with an intense, fascinated repulsion towards its subject… [The anthropologist] submits himself to the exotic to conf..." image: "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/fe1/susan-sontag-332_alienation_anthropology-has-always-struggled-with-a_15322.jpg" --- # Anthropology has always struggled with an intense… ![“Anthropology has always struggled with an intense, fascinated repulsion towards its subject… [The anthropologist] submits himself to the exotic to confirm his own inner alienation as an urban intellectual.” quote by Susan Sontag](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/fe1/susan-sontag-332_alienation_anthropology-has-always-struggled-with-a_15322.jpg) [Download](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/fe1/susan-sontag-332_alienation_anthropology-has-always-struggled-with-a_15322.jpg) [Open image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/fe1/susan-sontag-332_alienation_anthropology-has-always-struggled-with-a_15322.jpg) > “Anthropology has always struggled with an intense, fascinated repulsion towards its subject… \[The anthropologist\] submits himself to the exotic to confirm his own inner alienation as an urban intellectual.” [Susan Sontag](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/susan-sontag/) ## About This Quote This interpretation was drafted with AI assistance. It is one reading of the quote, not the author's own explanation. The quote critiques how anthropologists, driven by both curiosity and discomfort, exoticize their subjects to validate their own sense of alienation within modern society. **In simple terms:** Anthropology exoticizes subjects to reflect the scholar's alienation. Key Takeaway Scholars project personal dislocation onto studied cultures. Themes anthropology exoticism self-reflection urban intellectualism cultural alienation Mood critical reflective skeptical Type critical analytical philosophical When to use this quote - academic fieldwork - cultural analysis - urban elite discourse Key Concepts subjectivity power dynamics identity othering Practical Applications - critical self-awareness in research - reframing ethnographic narratives Questions to Reflect On - How does a researcher's background shape their interpretation? - What responsibilities do scholars have when representing 'the other'? ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ No ratings yet [Alienation](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/alienation/) [Anthropologists](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/anthropologists/) [Anthropology](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/anthropology/) [Anthropology Struggled](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/anthropology-struggled-380125/) [Exotic](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/exotic/) [Fascinated](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/fascinated/) [Fascinated Repulsion](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/fascinated-repulsion-380126/) [Inner Alienation](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/inner-alienation-380128/) [Intellectual](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/intellectual/) [Intense](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/intense/) [Repulsion](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/repulsion/) [Repulsion Subject](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/repulsion-subject-380127/) [Subject Anthropologist](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/subject-anthropologist-380129/) [Subjects](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/subjects/) [Submit](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/submit/) [Urban](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/urban/) ## Related quotes > [“To be severed and alienated within oneself also creates a sense of unreality. 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It is…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/frederick-lenz/your-mind-is-turbulent-because-you-re-filled-with-desires/) [Frederick Lenz](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/frederick-lenz/) > [The satirist is prevented by repulsion from gaining a better knowledge of the world he is attracted to, yet he is forced by attraction…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/italo-calvino/the-satirist-is-prevented-by-repulsion-from-gaining-a-better/) [Italo Calvino](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/italo-calvino/) > [Culture is the suggestion, from certain best thoughts, that a man has a range of affinities through which he can modulate the violence of…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ralph-waldo-emerson/culture-is-the-suggestion-from-certain-best-thoughts-that-a-man-has-a/) [Ralph Waldo Emerson](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ralph-waldo-emerson/) > [“The feeling of intense repulsion, which had begun to oppress and torture his heart while he was on his way to the old woman,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/fyodor-dostoyevsky/the-feeling-of-intense-repulsion-which-had-begun-to-oppress-and/) [Fyodor Dostoyevsky](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/fyodor-dostoyevsky/) > [A man and a woman are new to one another throughout a life-time, in the rhythm of marriage that matches the rhythm of the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/anonymous/a-man-and-a-woman-are-new-to-one-another-throughout-a-life-time-in/) [Anonymous](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/anonymous/) > [Even when your body does nothing, sin can be active in your mind. When your soul inwardly repulses the evil one's attack by means…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/gregory-palamas/even-when-your-body-does-nothing-sin-can-be-active-in-your-mind-when/) [Gregory Palamas](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/gregory-palamas/) > [All of my work is meant to evoke a whole bunch of different layers of discord between the attraction and repulsion that we feel…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/chris-jordan/all-of-my-work-is-meant-to-evoke-a-whole-bunch-of-different-layers-of/) [Chris Jordan](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/chris-jordan/) ## More by Susan Sontag > [the appetite for thinking must be regulated, as all sensible people know, for it may stifle one's life.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/susan-sontag/the-appetite-for-thinking-must-be-regulated-as-all-sensible-people/) [Susan Sontag](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/susan-sontag/) > [We are ruled by quotations.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/susan-sontag/we-are-ruled-by-quotations/) [Susan Sontag](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/susan-sontag/) > [Unfortunately, moral beauty in art - like physical beauty in a person - is extremely perishable. 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You come down into the world and you mingle, but all the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/arjum-hasan/everyone-who-lived-in-high-up-magical-places-must-feel-the-same-way/) [Arjum Hasan](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/arjum-hasan/) > [“If his long day were lived in a European novel, he'd become "D" when on the run or near disappeared.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/alex-kudera/if-his-long-day-were-lived-in-a-european-novel-he-d-become-d-when-on/) [Alex Kudera](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/alex-kudera/) > [Perhaps a creature of so much ingenuity and deep memory is almost bound to grow alienated from his world, his fellows, and the objects…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/loren-eiseley/perhaps-a-creature-of-so-much-ingenuity-and-deep-memory-is-almost/) [Loren Eiseley](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/loren-eiseley/) > [“She would not say of anyone in the world now that they were this or were that. 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Society…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/derrick-jensen/the-condition-of-alienation-of-being-asleep-of-being-unconscious-of/) [Derrick Jensen](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/derrick-jensen/) [Browse all 392 Alienation quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/alienation/) ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "Anthropology has always struggled with an intense, fascinated repulsion towards its subject… [The anthropologist] submits himself to the exotic to confirm his own inner alienation as an urban intellectual.", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Susan Sontag" }, "isPartOf": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#website" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/susan-sontag/anthropology-has-always-struggled-with-an-intense-fascinated/", "about": { "@type": "Thing", "name": "Alienation" }, "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/susan-sontag/anthropology-has-always-struggled-with-an-intense-fascinated/#quotation", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/fe1/susan-sontag-332_alienation_anthropology-has-always-struggled-with-a_15322.jpg", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/fe1/susan-sontag-332_alienation_anthropology-has-always-struggled-with-a_15322.jpg", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/fe1/susan-sontag-332_alienation_anthropology-has-always-struggled-with-a_15322.jpg", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“Anthropology has always struggled with an intense, fascinated repulsion towards its subject… [The…” — Susan Sontag", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } }, { "@type": "BreadcrumbList", "itemListElement": [ { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 1, "name": "Home", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 2, "name": "Quotes", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 3, "name": "Susan Sontag", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/susan-sontag/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 4, "name": "Anthropology has always struggled with an...", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/susan-sontag/anthropology-has-always-struggled-with-an-intense-fascinated/" } ], "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/susan-sontag/anthropology-has-always-struggled-with-an-intense-fascinated/#breadcrumb" }, { "@type": "WebSite", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#website", "name": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/", "publisher": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } }, { "@type": "Organization", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization", "name": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/", "logo": { "@type": "ImageObject", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wp-content/themes/sq/assets/icons/icon-512.png", "width": 512, "height": 512 } } ] } ```