Dancing with Skeletons Book Report

The book, Dancing Skeletons: Life and Death in West Africa, was a riveting book about an anthropologist’s view of a different culture. This memoir by Katherine A. Dettwyler, helped uncover an anthropologist’s first-hand view of field work, as well as being given the chance to discover real life behind the scenes of the glimpses of Africa we see through the atrocities in Darfur and the revolution demonstrations. In Africa, there is much diversity between people, and all of this is conveniently hidden from mass media. Before reading this book, I did not know much about the West African nation of Mali. The author truly loved the people of Mali, and she spoke about them with a lot of affection. At the same time, there is also a very tense, poignant chapter where she talks about how her daughter nearly died of drug-resistant malaria. Throughout the book, Dettwyler gives funny accounts about them as well as about her own misadventures.

I believe that each and every anthropologist should know the idea of holism and how important it is to be aware of it in every aspect of life, regardless of personal biases in foreign territory. While Dettwyler discussed the importance of holism throughout her book, ironically she did not follow it. In her personal account she did not fight against ethnocentrism. This personal bias makes this account more appealing because instead of viewing through a professionally and scientifically sterile and objective lens, we see the bare facts about how Dettwyler views the culture from her own perspective. In fact, she was constantly falling into her Caucasian-American mindset, shedding the formal anthropological robes she should have been wearing. This demonstrates the constant, personal struggles that an anthropologist has to go through in order to battle personal biases and maintain scientific objectivity.

Dettwyler utilizes humor and comical moments in order to balance the seriousness of this topic. During some moments, the author went a little too far and mocked her “friends” on obvious cultural differences. She takes a different perspective on female genital mutilation and sheds light on this topic by giving a very detailed account about how this cultural norm makes them view her. Even though it is widely known that there are cultures around the world that practice female genital mutilation and clitoridectomy, after having spent months and years with such cultures, she curiously comments at the idea and natives’ shock that she had not undergone the procedure. Laughing to make light of a situation is common, however, she made no comments in her book on actually understanding the practice. She demonstrates that cultural relativism has limits, and that when human rights seem violated, it is difficult to actually condone such behavior. Even though one should not joke about things that