Reply To: “Headlines” Indian hair episode: is it biased or activist?

10- Your whole argument the whole time is that it is tallui in the way the priest think it is fitting to serve it. That being the case, when Mrs. Berger quotes the TTD who actually run the temple, you can’t get a bigger clarity than that. Even if there is a tzad that Avoda Zara is really talui in the way the galach thinks, there is no tzad that it is tallui in what biased Emma Tarlo from London thinks. And the TTD who actively run the temple, have a lot more of a de’ah in what the Avoda Zara is than some random priest living in America.

Absolutely. This is called argument of authority. When he couldn’t challenge her account of a direct contact he switched to saying how dare you disagree with a professor. He tried to make fun and referred to her ‘Google research’ after she had explained that she spoke directly to them. (Why didn’t he do that, BTW.)

IF anyone wants to know how well western anthropologists understand their subject matter, just read up on how they describe us.