As I sit here slaving away for my Hinduism in America class, I have to wonder....why the bloody hell am I doing this? I grew up a "devout" Hindu, but the more I study this religion the more I think religion in general is a joke, especially its academic study. I cannot allow my soul to be eaten by the jaws of academia, within which the etic approach is considered superior and religion and anthropology are divorced, not to mention that I'd have to work for people with ridiculously high expectations who are never impressed no matter how hard one tries. Academia may be well-disguised as a noble profession, but in the end you have to sell at least a chunk of your soul to get anywhere. I do know that the academic study of religion is a field that needs much overhaul before it becomes a field that is taken as seriously as history, for example. The field of South Asia studies, while it is growing, will not get any higher on the academic totem pole unless it sheds its bias against the emic approach, and especially its stigma against South Asians entering the field. I may be paranoid, but there's definitely something there, and it has definitely turned me off of studying it after undergrad. At least if I study history I'll have a better chance of finding a job and perhaps not be judged because of my skin color. Pz.