Scholarly study should be shaped by human experience rather than imposing categories upon it.
Evidence
The problem then is to make the study fit and in some way be shaped by the experience, which would be illuminated and perhaps changed by the study. At all costs, the goal of Orientalizing the Orient again and again is to be avoided, with consequences that cannot help but refine knowledge and reduce the scholar’s conceit. Without “the Orient” there would be scholars, critics, intellectuals, human beings, for whom the racial, ethnic, and national distinctions were less important than the common enterprise of promoting human community. — Edward W. Said, Orientalism, 829
Categorization
- DEFINE: Clarifies the normative stance that replaces Orientalist knowledge: study shaped by lived experience rather than a priori categories.
- corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — Edward W. Said, Orientalism, 829
- XREF: connects to: Interpretation must translate scholarly findings into visitors’ lived identification — Freeman Tilden, Interpreting Our Heritage, 319; Historical study should serve life’s needs, not idle comfort. — Ann Laura Stoler, Along the Archival Grain_ Epistemic…, 1360; Keeping the organic-intellectual ideal in view changes the character of scholarly work (+8 more)
- yield-rescued: below the book’s yield-target cutoff, included anyway for connecting to: Interpretation must translate scholarly findings into visitors’ lived identification — Freeman Tilden, Interpreting Our Heritage, 319; Historical study should serve life’s needs, not idle comfort. — Ann Laura Stoler, Along the Archival Grain_ Epistemic…, 1360; Keeping the organic-intellectual ideal in view changes the character of scholarly work (+8 more)
Broader Connections
- Scholarly fields are constrained by society, institutions, and cultural tradition
#complicates(0.75) - Mass culture pre-forms experience rather than outlining it.
#complicates(0.72)