Totem: The University of Western Ontario Journal of Anthropology

Editorial: an experimental introduction

And so begins Totem, and, therein some weird tales of social science-fiction.

It's sad though, that they are but mere quips to the cacophony of anthropological discourse. Certainly that is the way student journals of this kind are generally presented and perceived. They are meritorious in their motivation. but alas, the style is quiet, and the content irrelevant.
This is not our view.

Each paper, at the very least, is important as a narrative: an ethnography of the author and the author's world. Granted these works will not be the splendid sweeping stories that create scientlftc paradigm shifts or social revolutions.
But so what.

Totem is comprised of salient work; it offers clear insight into a generation weaned on television, post-modernism, and other present truths;
And that's important.

For the emotive. subjective. and possibly nihilist tendencies of post-modernists are deeply in tune with this generation. already labeled,
'lost.'

It's a platitude to say 'students are the future,' but more its an insult to their present creativity. Recognizing genius is merely esteeming creative honesty. For that reason this joumal promises to endorse the unique genius of the young scholar before it becomes the homogenized genius of the old scholar.

And so we rush ahead, mixed and crazy metaphors diving and dancing like a dust cloud behind us.

Rik Logtenberg
March 25. 1994