Far from being the basis of the good society, the family, with its narrow privacy and tawdry secrets, is the source of all our discontents.
Interpretation
The quote suggests that families may contribute more to societal issues than they resolve, highlighting their private struggles.
Edmund Leach's quote challenges the idealized view of the family as a cornerstone of a good society, positing instead that the family's secrets and private conflicts are significant sources of discontent within society. This perspective encourages a critical examination of the role families play in shaping individual behaviors and societal norms, suggesting that rather than being a refuge or model of good, the family unit may often perpetuate dysfunction and dissatisfaction.
In practice
In a discussion about societal issues during a community meeting, one could use this quote to introduce a debate on family dynamics.
Needless to say, the business of living interferes with the solitude so needed for any work of the imagination. Here's what Virginia Woolf said in her diary about the sticky issue: "I've shirked two parties, and another Frenchman, and buying a hat, and tea with Hilda Trevelyan, for I really can't combine all this with keeping all my imaginary people going.
As immigrants, we understand better than most that to be an American is a privilege that conveys not just rights but responsibilities.
What has happened here [aftermath of 9/11] is not war in its traditional sense. This is clearly a crime against humanity. War crimes are crimes which happen in war time. There is a confusion there. This is a crime against humanity because it is deliberate and intentional killing of large numbers of civilians for political or other purposes. That is not tolerable under the international systems. And it should be prosecuted pursuant to the existing laws.
Life without liberty is like a body without spirit.
I have been accused of having believed when I wrote Sex and Temperament that there are no sex differences... This, many readers felt, was too much. It was too pretty. I must have found what I was looking for. But this misconception comes from a lack of understanding of what anthropology means, of the open-mindedness with which one must look and listen, record in astonishment and wonder, that which one would not have been able to guess.
And write whatever Time shall bring to pass_x000D_ _x000D_ With pens of adamant on plates of brass.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.