What is Anthropology?
To the question of “What is Anthropology?”: Anthropology is a generous comparative inquiry into the conditions & potentials of human life.
What is Anthropology?
The question of “What is Anthropology?” must be answered in each generation. Using the textbook Anthropology: What does it mean to be human? my latest attempt is in Intro-to-Anthropology 2021 and on YouTube.
The posts below highlight anthropology’s vibrancy and diversity. In 2017 I tried to write a blog-post version as Conditions and Potentials of Human Life. This version of anthropology drew heavily on Tim Ingold’s Anthropology and/as Education. A previous attempt at What is Anthropology (2011-2013) is available as an archive page on anthropology.
In 2020, I revisited the Purpose of Living Anthropologically and what anthropology should be doing in the time of coronavirus.
It is also helpful to take a look at the current Anthropology Blogs. On what has become one of the most prominent and popular anthropology blogs, SAPIENS, you can find the 2020 statement by Danilyn Rutherford. Rutherford is the president of the Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research, which funds SAPIENS. Rutherford writes that “Anthropologists study people–particular people, in particular times and places–and what makes them human in their own distinctive ways.”
Anthropology Matters
The October 2017 issue of Open Anthropology promotes material linked to the #AmAnth17 meetings, Anthropology Matters (November 29-December 3).
How Did Anthropology Begin?
Early episodes of European colonialism, plantation slavery in the Caribbean, and Darwin in Tierra del Fuego are crucial to “How Did Anthropology Begin?”
Transformational Storytelling Anthropology
Anthropology and Storytelling – Stories that must be told to transform the anthropocene. And yet: Can anthropology spell out relevance for a wider audience?
anthropology will only matter if it evokes a purpose outside of itself
Thinking about the purpose of anthropology: “Ultimately, anthropology will only matter… if it evokes a purpose outside of itself” (Trouillot 2003, 5)
We Cannot Abandon Humanity
When Bill Gates recommends Jared Diamond & Steven Pinker, reiterate anthropology’s calling: “the fate of no human group can be irrelevant to humankind” (Trouillot).
Busting Myths
“Race, Monogamy, and Other Lies They Told You” launched Agustin Fuentes into a public defense of anthropology’s relevance.
What is American Anthropology? – 4 July 2012
For a July 2013 update see Public Anthropology and Bill Gates: We Cannot Abandon Humanity For most of the world, 4 July 2012 was a midweek Wednesday. How most of the world shares that calendar is another important story for anthropology, but for now I write from the United States of America, where many people … Read more
Liberal Arts Anthropology
Anthropology is a growing field with many useful contributions. Anthropology’s world-changing approach is well connected to the liberal arts.
Virginia Dominguez, Anthropology’s Challenge: We can be better
AAA president Virginia Dominguez provoked and challenged anthropologists in Montreal for the 2011 presidential address. We can be better.
Scientific Humanism
“We should be the humanistic science and the scientific humanism that Eric Wolf described nearly 50 years ago” (H. Russell Bernard, Science in Anthropology)
Do anthropologists study everything?
Anthropologists don’t study everything. Anthropology studies important issues, in context, and gets real data. Anthropology is necessary.