Anthropology a Science? Statement Deepens a Rift

[cali]

By NICHOLAS WADE
Published: December 9, 2010

Anthropologists have been thrown into turmoil about the nature and future of their profession after a decision by the American Anthropological Association at its recent annual meeting to strip the word “science” from a statement of its long-range plan.


The decision has reopened a long-simmering tension between researchers in science-based anthropological disciplines — including archaeologists, physical anthropologists and some cultural anthropologists — and members of the profession who study race, ethnicity and gender and see themselves as advocates for native peoples or human rights.

During the last 10 years the two factions have been through a phase of bitter tribal warfare after the more politically active group attacked work on the Yanomamo people of Venezuela and Brazil by Napoleon Chagnon, a science-oriented anthropologist, and James Neel, a medical geneticist who died in 2000. With the wounds of this conflict still fresh, many science-based anthropologists were dismayed to learn last month that the long-range plan of the association would no longer be to advance anthropology as a science but rather to focus on “public understanding.”

Until now, the association’s long-range plan was “to advance anthropology as the science that studies humankind in all its aspects.” The executive board revised this last month to say, “The purposes of the association shall be to advance public understanding of humankind in all its aspects.” This is followed by a list of anthropological subdisciplines that includes political research.

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http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/10/science/10anthropology.html

[harun]

1. Cultural Anthropology is very very interesting to me. If anyone wants a great

layman's book to read on the subject I highly recommend:

Social and Cultural Anthropology: A Very Short Introduction

http://www.amazon.com/Social-Cultural-Anthropology-Introduction-Introductions/dp/0192853465/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1291984943&sr=8-1

Really changed the way I approached looking at people from different cultures.

[a la izquierda]

2. Thanks for posting...

I'm going to send to a friend of mine, who has a PhD in anthropology. We've long had discussions about the topic.