American Anthropologist's "particular problem" with biological anthropology

"Singling out biological anthropologists as representing a “particular problem” reinforces the pervasive premise that sociocultural anthropology is normative anthropology, and the measure against which all other specialties are compared (and apparently fall short)."
http://www.anthropology-news.org/index.php/2013/12/04/american-anthropologists-particular-problem-with-biological-anthropology/

Sarah Livengood, BAS rep and BANDIT FB mod!

My name is Sarah V. Livengood and I am the current student representative for the Biological Anthropology Section (BAS) of the American Anthropological Association (AAA). I am a doctoral student at the University of Arkansas. I earned my MA at Georgia State University and my BA at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. As a freshman I was lucky enough to attend the AAA conference with student government funding allocated to our anthropology club. The experience gave me the chance to see everything my discipline has to offer. It also provided me the opportunity to see what an academic conference actually is, and when it came time to present my research I was far less intimidated by the experience.

I did not attend the AAA meeting again until my first year as a graduate student. I became active in BAS accidently when I stumbled into the BAS board meeting. My advisor had encouraged me to attend the BAS business meeting, and I misread the program. My mistake became an opportunity when I was encouraged to throw my name in the hat for the student representative seat. Getting involved in the “business side of things” has been an eye-opening experience. Not only have I got to spend time with professional anthropologists that I admire, but I have also learned what keeps an association running, how they support their members, and the resources available to me as a student. 

I have found there are benefits to getting involved as a student. The AAA as a whole offers countless opportunities for students to be active in a professional organization, and the boost to your CV isn’t too shabby. You can find ways to get involved through sections and committees, and there is even a student section (National Association of Student Anthropologists). Biological anthropology students can benefit from all of these opportunities and gain a supportive network within the AAA. The Biological section has a business meeting and reception every year, sponsors several poster and paper sessions, and has a student paper/poster competition that includes recognition at the business meeting, a monetary prize, and publication in the BAS section of Anthropology News.

One of the biggest issues I face as BAS student representative is encouraging student participation in AAA, and helping students realize that there is a place for them and their research at the AAA conference. The AAA has provided me with countless opportunities to further my career, and the chance to meet and work with people I might never meet otherwise.  Attending any conference can be expensive, and I only made it to my first meeting with the support of my department and university. A lot of universities offer funding if you are presenting, but there are also options if you aren’t presenting. Your anthropology club is a great way to get a group of students together to help alleviate some of the costs through shared hotel rooms, transportation, etc. and a university sponsored organization can petition student governments to help fund educational trips. Also check out the variety of student awards offered by different sections of the AAA’s, some of these are travel related. And of course, contact your student representative if you have any questions!

Central States Anthropological Society meeting!

CSAS 2013 Annual Meeting

April 4-6, 2013

Crowne Plaza Hotel,  St. Louis, Missouri

 CALL FOR PAPERS

Abstract deadline December 7th!!!

The Annual Meeting of the Central States Anthropological Society will be held at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in St. Louis, Missouri, April 4-6, 2013. Faculty, students, independent scholars, and practitioners are encouraged to submit abstracts for papers, posters, organized sessions, workshops and roundtables in all four fields of anthropology, as well as applied. The annual CSAS conference is student-friendly and features a paper competition for both undergraduate and graduate students. It also offers an opportunity for anthropologists from throughout the central states, from institutions large and small, to meet, talk, and network. The 2013 conference will be hosted by the University of Missouri, St. Louis’ Department of Anthropology, Sociology and Languages, and most of the events will be held in the Crowne Plaza Hotel, located in downtown St. Louis.

The conference will feature a distinguished lecture by Dr. Pascal Boyer, the Henry Luce Professor of Individual and Collective Memory at Washington University, St. Louis. The title of his lecture is “The Naturalness of Social Institutions: How Human Evolution and Cognition Explain Patterns of Human Sociality”.

Biological Anthropology at the AAA meeting!

I can't believe it's nearly time to head to the 2012 AAA meeting in San Francisco! The Biological Anthropology Section of AAA is organizing many sessions and activities at the meeting, including a few of particular interest to me: 

BIOCULTURAL INSIGHTS INTO LIFE HISTORY AND HUMAN SOCIAL BEHAVIOR
Chair: Michaela Howells

CROSSING SAFELY INTO TODDLERHOOD: AN ECOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVE ON RISKS TO INFANT CARE
Chair: Sera Young

BRAINS IN THE WILD: THE CHALLENGES OF NEUROANTHROPOLOGY

Chair: Greg Downey

2012 W.W. HOWELLS BOOK AWARD: Sarah Blaffer Hrdy, "Mothers and Others: The Evolutionary Origins of Mutual Understanding"

2012 BAS DISTINGUISHED LECTURE: Darna Dufour, "Anthropological Perspectives on Nutrition Transitions"  

Other sessions of interest to bio-folks include the following (can you tell which ones I'm super excited about and have you noticed the suspicious Marksist pattern?):

EVOLUTIONARY UNDERSTANDINGS OF CULTURAL PRACTICES
Thursday, November 15, 2012: 10:15 AM-12:00 PM
Chair:  Douglas M Jones

EVOLUTIONARY INSIGHTS INTO CHILDHOOD, PARENTING, AND COOPERATION
Thursday, November 15, 2012: 1:45 PM-3:30 PM
Organizer & Chair:  Lee Cronk

****BORDERING ON FACT: WHEN ANTHROPOLOGISTS HAVE TO TAKE SCIENCE TO TASK**** 
Thursday, November 15, 2012: 4:00 PM-5:45 PM
Organizers:  Clare L Boulanger; Chairs:  Chelsea Blackmore
Jonathan M Marks (University of North Carolina-Charlotte)
CURRENT ISSUES IN BEHAVIORAL ECOLOGY
Thursday, November 15, 2012: 4:00 PM-5:45 PM
Chair:  Kristin Snopkowski

****INTEGRATING OUR SCIENCES:  CROSSING THE BORDERS OF THE DISCIPLINES****
Friday, November 16, 2012: 1:45 PM-3:30 PM
Organizers:  Alice B Kehoe; Chairs:  Leslea Hlusko
Participants:  Jonathan M Marks, Montgomery Slatkin, Carole L Crumley, Rasmus Nielsen, and John H Moore

A SUM GREATER THAN ITS PARTS: MULTI-DISCIPLINARY PERSPECTIVES ON LATER HUMAN EVOLUTION
Saturday, November 17, 2012: 1:45 PM-5:30 PM
Organizers & Chairs:  Jamie L Clark and Adam P Van Arsdale;
Discussants:  Milford H Wolpoff and Julien Riel-Salvatore

CLIMATE CHANGE POLICY AND ANTHROPOLOGY: CROSSING MULTIPLE BORDERS AND SCALES
Saturday, November 17, 2012: 4:00 PM-5:45 PM
Organizers:  Shirley J Fiske; Chairs: Carole L Crumley and Shirley J Fiske

CURRENT THEMES IN EVOLUTIONARY ANTHROPOLOGY: DEMOGRAPHIC TRANSITION, COOPERATION, AND CULTURAL TRANSMISSION
Saturday, November 17, 2012: 4:00 PM-5:45 PM
Organizers:  Eric A Smith; Chairs:  Adam H Boyette

Recording of Science in Anthropology discussion online NOW!

Following up on my call to action, I'm very happy to report that we were able to secure permission from all AAA Science in Anthropology panel participants to record the session, and that we were able to plug directly into the sound system so the recording is very crisp and clean. I've been told that it will be added to the AAA webpage of the recorded sessions; however, that won't be ready until after the holidays. AAA is planning to feature it on their blog and website this week via the iTunes link once that is up so that it won't be delayed. Thanks to everyone who helped make this happen. Once the podcast is up, please listen, possibly as part of your seminars and lab or  faculty meetings and comment on the BANDIT blog, the AAA blog,  Facebook, and Twitter to keep the discussion going!

In the meantime, Michigan graduate student Caroline VanSickle wrote a great summary of the discussion as told by twitter.

ETA on November 27, 2011: The podcast has been posted on AAA's blog. Check it out and please share & discuss.

Science in Anthropology at AAA: an "open" discussion?

The Society for Anthropological Sciences proposed a session to discuss Science in Anthropology in the wake of what became known as #aaafail: the omission of the word "science" from the Long Range Plan. There will be a roundtable of various folks, various perspectives, including members of the Executive Board. Awesome! Well, sort of. The session is scheduled for the morning of Thursday, November 17. Which happens to conflict with not one but two sessions of the Biological Anthropology Section, three sessions of the Archaeological Division,  and one session of the Evolutionary Anthropology Society. These are some of the most affected and vocal stakeholders in the discussion, but those voices won't be able to participate in this discussion. Indeed, one of the speakers is Dr. Alice Dreger, who wrote what could be considered the opening salvo in the #aaafail reporting. It was entertaining and clever, and it was also one of the most polarizing perspectives. Importantly, Dr. Dreger isn't an anthropologist. She's a historian/philosopher of science. That's great and interesting and relevent to an extent, but why go outside the discipline to have a discussion about science IN anthropology? Where are the anthro bloggers who contributed so much passion to the issue? Well, I would be there but I'm presenting a paper in one of the BAS sessions so I'm out.


In the wake of all that's happened in the last year (#aaafail, Florida governor Rick Scott), and the EB's embracing of the Science discussion (President Dominguez is a discussant) it is disappointing that there was no outreach to all of the scientifically-rooted AAA sections to consider how this would affect opposing sessions. There is concern that the discussion will draw away the audience for the BAS sessions, which are already competing directly against each other.


To be clear, this is not an oversight by the Biological Anthropology Section. Since the session did not originate with BAS it had no jurisdiction over scheduling nor did it even know about the session until the schedule was made. I really do understand that scheduling a meeting of this scale is a gargantuan task and some double-bookings are unavoidable. We just need to get each other's back a little more. In recent weeks, the AAA has done an admirable job of claiming science and scientists as part of anthropology. I want us to grow that inclusivity! That's something I hope to explore at this meeting as a 2011 AAA Leadership Fellow. I'll be meeting with members of the EB to learn about AAA governance and I'll be asking questions about what we can do to navigate and ultimately break down these disciplinary partitions.


But I'm not just kvetching, as fun as that is. I want us all to be able to at least hear the discussion even if we can't be there. To that end, I requested that AAA record the discussion to produce as a podcast but there is no recording equipment available at that time. So, BANDITs, are you going to be in Montreal? Do you have some kind of recording device? Are you willing to attend and record the session and send the files to AAA so they can produce a podcast? Please let me know tout de suite, d'accord?

Biological Anthropology sessions at AAA

There are some wonderful biological & evolutionary anthropology sessions on the schedule of the upcoming AAA meetings. It's not too late to join us in Montreal!

Thursday, November 17, 2011:


· 08:00-09:45: ATTACHMENTS, ALLIANCES, AND REPUTATIONS: TRACING COOPERATION THROUGH TIME, SPACE, AND THE LIFESPAN. Organizers: Adam H Boyette (Washington State University, Vancouver) and Shane J Macfarlan (Oregon State University)

· 08:00-11:45: BODY PARTS AND PARTS OF BODIES: THE TRACES OF VIOLENCE IN CULTURES IN CONFLICT. Organizers: Ryan P Harrod (University of Nevada, Las Vegas) and Debra L Martin (UNLV)

· 10:15-12:00: CALCULATING LEGACIES: INFORMED BIOLOGICAL ANTHROPOLOGY IN THE 21ST CENTURY. Organizers: Robin G Nelson (University of California, Riverside)

· 10:15-12:00: SCIENCE IN ANTHROPOLOGY: AN OPEN DISCUSSION Organizer: Peter Peregrine (Lawrence University)

· 13:45-17:30: RE-ENVISIONING CULTURE: CHALLENGING LEGACIES AND SHIFTING TIDEMARKS IN THE STUDY OF HUMAN DIVERSITY. Organizers: Amber Wutich (Arizona State University) and Daniel Hruschka (Arizona State University)


Friday, November 18, 2011:

· 08:00-11:45: THE SCARS OF HUMAN EVOLUTION. Organizers: Karen Rosenberg (University of Delaware) and Rachel Caspari (Central Michigan University)
· 16:00-17:45: NEW DIRECTIONS IN BIOARCHAEOLOGY

· 18:15-19:30: BAS BUSINESS MEETING

· 19:30-21:30: BIOLOGICAL ANTHROPOLOGY SECTION DISTINGUISHED LECTURE; RECEPTION FOLLOWS


Saturday, November 19, 2011:

· 08:00-11:45: TRANSFORMING BIOCULTURAL AND ECOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVES IN ANTHROPOLOGY: THE LEGACIES OF R BROOKE THOMAS. Organizers: Thomas L Leatherman (University of Massachusetts) and Lisa B Markowitz (University of Louisville)

· 10:15-12:00: DOWN TO EARTH: EXHUMATIONS IN THE CONTEMPORARY WORLD: Organizers: Francisco Ferrandiz (SPANISH NATIONAL RESEARCH COUNCIL) and Victoria D Sanford (Lehman College/CUNY)

· 16:00-17:45: NEW DIRECTIONS IN EVOLUTION, VARIATION AND GENETICS

· 16:00-17:45: TRACING CHILDHOOD: BIOARCHAEOLOGICALINVESTIGATIONS OF EARLY LIVES IN ANTIQUITY. Organizers: John J Crandall (University of Nevada, Las Vegas)

· 18:15-20:15: Section Summit on the Changing Job Market and Student Training: Linking Anthropology Departments and Practice. Organizers: Keri Vacanti Brondo, Wendy Bartlo, and Mary Odell Butler


Sunday, November 20, 2011:

· 08:00-11:45:  TRACES OF VIOLENCE AND LEGACIES OF CONFLICT: COMBINING MATERIAL EVIDENCE AND NARRATIVE EXCHANGE FOR AN ANTHROPOLOGY OF VIOLENT ENCOUNTERS. Organizers: Rahul C Oka (University of Notre Dame) and Nerina Weiss (Rehabilitation and Research Centre for Torture Victims).

AAA prizes for bioanthropology students!

Are you (or do you have) an undergraduate or graduate student in biological anthropology who will be presenting at the AAA meeting in Montreal? You are eligible to compete for the Biological Anthro Section (BAS) Student Prize! Please submit the your name, paper title, and session title to Dr. Katherine MacKinnon by November 15 (note: you may nominate your students yourself).

Student participation in the AAA is so important to maintain and grow the presence (and influence!) of biological anthropologists within the larger discipline of anthropology, so please enter and be recognized for your outstanding work!

AAA 2011 program available

The program for the upcoming American Anthropological Association conference in Montreal is now available. In the coming months I will put together a list of talks and events relevant to biological anthropologists. You may also be able to find information at the Biological Anthropology Section site.

I am super excited about this meeting and I look forward to seeing many of you there!

Yay me! 2011 AAA Leadership Fellow

I am very pleased to announce to the BANDIT readership that I have been selected as one of two Leadership Fellows by the American Anthropological Association for 2011. Professor Heide Castañeda of University of South Florida is the other Fellow. Dr. Castañeda and I will be matched with more established anthropologists who are involved in AAA governance; we will learn what goes into planning and executing the annual meeting and how the association works behind the scenes. It's a fantastic opportunity and I am very grateful to the AAA officers for selecting me. I also have the BANDIT community to thank because I think our dialogue here on the blog and especially the passionate conversation here and elsewhere online regarding the AAA Long Range Plan and attendant philosophical debates played an important role in my being selected. Thank you, and I will share as much of my fellowship experience with you as I can. See you in Montreal!

AAA Leadership Mentoring Award Program

The American Anthropological Association is pleased to announce the annual AAA Leadership Mentoring Award Program. The purpose of this mentorship/award program is to provide a unique opportunity for anthropologists early in their careers to learn about AAA and leadership opportunities and to encourage future leadership in the association. Anthropologists three to five years beyond completion of their terminal graduate degree are encouraged to apply. Each year a group of three to five awardees (mentees) will be paired with a mentor chosen from among AAA leadership. Mentors will be available to mentees throughout the year to answer questions related to AAA. Mentees will shadow mentors at the AAA Annual Meeting where there will also be a lunch scheduled for all mentors and mentees to share their experiences in the program.

American Anthropologist: 2010 in Review (aka Libby Cowgill is awesome!)

American Anthropologist produces an annual Year in Review issue, with essays contributed by representatives of multiple subdisciplines. The 2010 review of biological anthropology was written by Libby Cowgill of the University of Missouri, and she has put forth a stellar contribution:

One Year in Biological Anthropology: Species, Integration, and Boundaries in 2010
ABSTRACT  The year 2010 in biological anthropology has been marked by continuing questions regarding temporal and geographical species boundaries and by queries into what it means to be human. The lines of evidence we use to reconstruct our biosocial past often exist in a state of dynamic tension; however, opportunities for integration do occur, and these collaborative endeavors were notable in 2010. Here I focus on boundaries and integration in four separate areas. First, I discuss recent genetic advances in our understanding of human evolution. Second, I review a virtual issue of the American Journal of Physical Anthropology that emphasized bioarchaeology in Asia. Third, I highlight several articles in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences that focus on speciation, human genetics, and the evolution of unique human characteristics. Last, I address the recent controversy over the language used in the American Anthropological Association's Long-Range Plan.

It is wonderful to see our discipline so ably represented by a rising scholar in the field. Speaking from experience, these AA reviews are a challenge to compose and Dr. Cowgill has done an outstanding job. Libby, you are truly awesome!

I hope the BANDIT community will check out the other annual reviews:
Archaeology, Elizabeth Arkush
Explaining the Past in 2010

Linguistic Anthropology, Leila Monaghan
The Expanding Boundaries of Linguistic Anthropology: 2010 in Perspective

Practicing Anthropology, Paul R. Mullins
Practicing Anthropology and the Politics of Engagement: 2010 Year in Review

Sociocultural Anthropology, Jennifer A Hamilton and Aimee J. Placas
Anthropology Becoming … ? The 2010 Sociocultural Anthropology Year in Review

AAA Ethics Task Force Blog

The AAA has been working hard over the last several years to update its ethics position. In an exciting move toward transparency, the AAA membership is being asked to give feedback on the process thus far. I am passing along a message from Katie MacKinnon:

The AAA’s Task Force for Comprehensive Ethics Review is in the process of reviewing and revising our code of ethics, and we are soliciting the help of the members in this process.

Thus far, five principles have been posted to the Ethics Task Force blog.

I would like to ask that you please circulate this info with your blog readership (and/or other anthropology colleagues who might be interested), and suggest that folks send any comments/thoughts back to the task force, preferably as entries on the blog. We would like a wide readership to generate a useful discussion on these topics, and we will re-send the entire list when all principles have been posted.

We look forward to hearing from you!


Best,

Katie MacKinnon
Member, Task Force for Comprehensive Ethics Review

Posted principles (from the blog):
•Informed consent is a dynamic, continuous and reflective process
•Balance the responsibility to disseminate with its potential consequence
•Be open and honest regarding your work. Make your results accessible
•Balance competing ethical obligations due collaborators and affected parties
•Do no harm

Anthropology without doctorates

I missed this when it came out (thanks to @AnthroDoula on Twitter for pointing out the InsideHigherEd report): the AAA recently released a study of the career paths of 833 Masters graduates in Anthropology. Among the many interesting findings:
"Among MAs working in non-academic jobs, nearly 30% have jobs that require education and training in anthropology (e.g., cultural resources specialist, ethnographer)."

"Among workplace preparation skills, over three-fourths of respondents ranked technical writing for proposals and grants as the most important skill for MA curricula, followed by project design, development and management."

"Overall, Masters graduates expressed high satisfaction with the quality, depth, breadth and relevance of their education and skill sets. Only 9% were somewhat or very dissatisfied."

From the Inside Higher Ed piece:
"People really felt that their degree was pretty central to their career," said (Shirley)Fiske (one of three co-authors). She added that respondents seemed to identify more strongly with being an anthropologist the further away they were from receiving their degree. It was, she said, evidence of the discipline's particular training and molding. "Anthropology, even more than some of social sciences, creates a distinctive worldview," she said.


It's wonderful the AAA is engaged in this kind of research. It's interesting that so many folks with terminal masters view themselves as anthropologists. Wouldn't it be fascinating for a similar study to find out how many anthropologists view themselves as scientists? Surveys of the membership, while tedious, could provide a more solid foundation for crafting long range plan and mission statements in the future.

Central States Anthropological Society 2011 meeting

The Central States Anthropological Society is a section of the American Anthropological Society and holds annual meetings in the broadly defined Midwest. This year's meeting will be hosted by the University of Iowa, April 7-9, 2011.

This is a relatively small-scale, student-friendly conference with very reasonable registration rates (e.g. $70 for AAA members, $90 for non-members). This year's Distinguished Lecture will be given by Dr. Sue Savage-Rumbaugh which will undoubtedly be highly interesting and entertaining.

Browsing through the CSAS preliminary program, I was particularly struck by the session The Cat's Out of the Bag, and Clawing: Forum on Recognizing Science in Anthropology , scheduled for Friday. I'm really delighted to see this issue being interrogated in a conference forum and expect to see more of this at AAA 2011 in Montreal. There will also be a Professional Development Panel on the job application process which should be required attendance for all graduate students.

AAA Biological Anthropology Section website

The Biological Anthropology Section of the AAA has a website that is frequently updated, and a recent compilation of blogs focusing on biological anthropology content. The BAS is very interested in increasing its general reach as well as its impact within the AAA via digital media so if you have any suggestions for additions to this list, please let me know and I will pass it along.

The Meaning of Music in Anthropology News

In the aftermath of #aaafail, there is an opportunity to take a more intentional approach to understanding the ways in which our work as anthropologists interconnects with the broader anthropological community. To that end, I was really struck by a fascinating commentary on the Meaning of Music in this month's Anthropology News, the official newspaper of the AAA. Given my research interests, I was especially interested in Jerusha Achterberg and Anthony Pierce's essay on the Convergence of Music and Biological Anthropology Methodologies. These collaborators, one an biological anthropologist and epidemiologist and the other a musician, are interested in "using aural depictions as an alternative means of communicating data." Complex sound instead of bar charts? A fascinating premise, the pair realized that there were large intervening gulfs not only in their expertise, but more frustratingly, in the language they use to explain foundational concepts of their specific research areas. Their candid reflection on where their collaboration is most challenged is interesting and relevant to all of us engaged in cross-disciplinary work:
"Coming from two different backgrounds, we quickly realized the importance of establishing shared conversational space. Achieving that space has been - and remains - incredibly hard to find and maintain....The single greatest challenge is finding meaningful terminology that we can each recognize and utilize, while effectively communicating with our respective discipline."
This rings very true to me in light of recent collaborations with OB/GYN clinicians whose language, methodological focus, and philosophy of risk and disease are very different from mine as an evolutionarily-informed biological anthropologist.

Another piece in the series that piqued my interest is Mothers, Children, and Maternal-Child Health in Image and Song, by Jesse Samba Wheeler. Wheeler works in Malawi and has been participating in the production of a documentary, Delivering Malawi, "about health, community practices and international aid, with a focus on maternal-child health." During the filmmaking process, Wheeler recorded a wonderful song called Joyce na NyaMoyo, which is sung at mobile clinics. It is song about the need for prenatal care, and includes lines such as "We will never neglect antenatal again, because our friends have babies" and "Women and men, let us encourage each other to go for antenatal care."

Check out this issue of AN and see which essays resonate most strongly for you or introduce you to a new way of thinking.

AAA Minority Dissertation Fellowship

The American Anthropological Association invites minority doctoral candidates in anthropology to apply for a dissertation writing fellowship of $10,000. The annual AAA Minority Dissertation Fellowship is intended to encourage members of ethnic minorities to complete doctoral degrees in anthropology, thereby increasing diversity in the discipline and/or promoting research on issues of concern among minority populations. Dissertation topics in all areas of the discipline are welcome.Doctoral students who require financial assistance to complete the write-up phase of the dissertation are urged to apply.

A nonrenewable dissertation fellowship of $10,000 will be provided annually to one anthropology graduate student.

Anthro bloggers send letter to the AAA Executive Board

Several anthropologists who maintain an active online presence and following via blogs, Twitter, and other social media have joined together to send a letter to the AAA Executive Board (EB) regarding our role in growing the conversation about the recent removal of "science" from the LRP as well as the subsequent controversy and debate. I include the full text of the letter below, as well as a link to a pdf complete with hyperlinks to all websites and Twitter profiles; feel free to distribute and post the document.

To: Virginia Dominguez
Cc: Leith Mullings, Deb Martin, Nan Rothschild, George Armelagos, Florence Babb, Laura Graham, Ana Aparicio, Alisse Waterston, Jason Miller, Hugh Gusterson, Susan Gillespie, Lee Baker, Jean Schensul, Vilma Santiago-Irizarry, Gabriela Vargas-Cetina, Ida Susser, Ed Liebow, Kate Clancy, Daniel Lende

January 10, 2010

Dear President Dominguez, President-Elect Mullings, and the AAA Executive Board,

We are a group of anthropologists who maintain an online presence, through social media tools like blogs, Twitter, and Facebook. The focus and tone of our presence varies, from outreach to research, from teaching to career development, from the personal to the political. However, we are united in our passion for our discipline. We join with those who have applauded the wording of the “What is Anthropology?” statement which clearly outlines the interdisciplinary nature of anthropology and its methods, both scientific and humanistic. This statement achieves the inclusivity that the removal of “science” from the Long Range Plan threw into question.

However, we also want to express our concern over AAA’s public characterization that it was only the mainstream media and other outside coverage that engaged in active discussions of the actions of the Executive Board (EB), or that this media coverage didn't in some ways reflect real tensions and reactions within the anthropological community. As a group, we played key roles in the online discussion regarding the AAA EB recent omission of the word “science” from the Long Range Plan (LRP), as well as subsequent responses by the EB. By parameterizing the public discussion as only taking place in the media and among "outsider" bloggers attempting to construct an “us versus them” binary, the impression is given that there has been no internal dissent or dialogue.

In reality, there has been a vibrant conversation taking place on our blogs, on Facebook, on Twitter, and on other forms of social media, expressing myriad views regarding not only the LRP wording, the actions of the EB, and the role of science in anthropology, but also deeper questions of anthropological identity. Indeed, it was through blogs and Twitter feeds like ours that the media and outside bloggers first realized the depth of concern and confusion the EB’s actions elicited within the anthropological community. This concern and critique were more complicated, and frankly more interesting, than the dichotomous rift promulgated by the New York Times and other outlets, but it was real and it was taking place among anthropologists. We know the EB is aware of the vibrant online community of anthropologists that has been deeply engaged in this issue. We hope the EB will publicly recognize how anthropologists online helped advance debate over the controversy, playing a central role in creating a publicly available discussion that engaged the Executive Board, anthropologists of different persuasions, and the larger media.

Online communities represent a powerful tool for dissecting tensions and misunderstandings as well as for constructing a broad forum for interdisciplinary collaboration and identity-building. We believe this controversy could have been largely mitigated by more effective discussion of the Long Range Plan in public forums online, and more timely release of all documents related to the controversy. With respect to the association’s long-term planning, we also believe the EB will be well-served by developing a more explicit and robust approach to anthropology online, including issues around open-access scholarship, public dissemination of ideas, teaching, interdisciplinary collaboration, and connection with and support for anthropologists who work online. Our own experience during this controversy shows the potential and importance of online engagement. Many of us were operating in isolation before the news of the changes to the LRP allowed us to find each other, to coordinate postings and conversations both on- and off-line. We have been grateful for the online anthropology community that has come together because of our opinions on the AAA LRP. Some have described this conversation as a renaissance for the discipline, and others have committed to learning more about each other’s subfields because of the tension that we finally had to acknowledge, all because of the AAA’s removal of the word “science.” We encourage the EB to consider how to support anthropologists working online, and to encourage further online collaboration and dissemination among AAA members. This will strengthen the discipline, and also permit more timely discussion and engagement among AAA members as the AAA acts on its Long Range Plan.

We view our online role as anthropologists as contributing a valuable service to the discipline we love. We are hopeful that this episode in our shared history will prove to catalyze important and inclusive dialogue regarding who we are as anthropologists as well as the channels we use to communicate with one another. We encourage the EB and the AAA membership as a whole to participate in this online community, to hear and join with the voices that are coming from within our discipline. This is an opportunity to move past marginalization and work together toward rebuilding a truly interdisciplinary anthropology based on mutual respect.

Sincerely,

Julienne Rutherford, Assistant Professor, University of Illinois at Chicago
Blog http://aapabandit.blogspot.com, Twitter @JNRutherford
Kate Clancy, Assistant Professor, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Blog http://professorkateclancy.blogspot.com, Twitter @KateClancy
Daniel Lende, Associate Professor, University of South Florida
Blog http://blogs.plos.org/neuroanthropology, Twitter @daniel_lende
Ryan Anderson, PhD candidate, University of Kentucky
Blog http://ethnografix.blogspot.com
Krystal D’Costa, Digital Analyst, New York City
Blog http://www.anthropologyinpractice.com, Twitter @anthinpractice
Francis Deblauwe, Program Developer, Alexandria Archive Institute
Blog http://www.alexandriaarchive.org/blog
Blog http://ux.opencontext.org/blog
Carlina de la Cova, Assistant Professor, University of North Carolina at Greensboro
Twitter @Bonesholmes
Eric Michael Johnson, PhD candidate, University of British Columbia
Blog http://primatediariesinexile.blogspot.com, Twitter @ericmjohnson
James Holland Jones, Associate Professor, Stanford University
Blog http://monkeysuncle.stanford.edu, Twitter @juemos
Rosemary A. Joyce, Professor, University of California, Berkeley
Blog http://ancientbodies.wordpress.com, Twitter @rajoyceUCB
Eric Kansa, Project Lead, Open Context
Blog http://www.alexandriaarchive.org/blog
http://opencontext.org
Erin Koch, Assistant Professor, University of Kentucky
Blog http://www.somatosphere.net
Kristi Lewton, Lecturer, Harvard University
Twitter @kristilewton
Carl Lipo, Associate Professor, California State University, Long Beach
Blog http://www.evobeach.com
Megan McCullen, Visiting Instructor, Alma College
Blog http://ethnohistorian.wordpress.com, Twitter@GLEthnohistory
Carole McGranahan, Associate Professor, University of Colorado
Twitter @CMcGranahan
Colleen Morgan, PhD candidate, University of California, Berkeley
Blog http://middlesavagery.wordpress.com
Eugene Raikhel, Assistant Professor, Unversity of Chicago
Blog http://www.somatosphere.net
Douglas Reeser, PhD candidate, University of South Florida
Blog http://recycledminds.blogspot.com
Michael E. Smith, Professor, Arizona State University
Blog http://publishingarchaeology.blogspot.com
Matt Tuttle, Journalist, Norfolk Anthropology Examiner
Twitter @Anthroprobably
Kyle W. West, Research Coordinator, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center
Blog http://kylewwest.blogspot.com, Twitter @kyle_west

Biological Anthropology Section student paper prize winners!

Many congratulations to BAS student prize winner Allison Foley of Indiana University. Her paper DISABILITY AND DISEASE IN THE ANCIENT MIDWEST: A PALEOPATHOLOGICAL ANALYSIS OF THE MORTON SITE, IL took top BAS honors at the 2010 AAA meetings!
Foley, M.Sc. in Archaeology (University of Edinburgh, 2004), is a Future Faculty Teaching Fellow with an appointment as a Visiting Lecturer at Indiana University South Bend in Anthropology. She is enrolled in the Ph.D. Program in Biological Anthropology at Indiana University (Bloomington). The title of her dissertation is “Trauma in the Central Illinois River Valley: A Paleopathological Analysis of the Morton Site.”

Congratulations also to the Honorable Mentions (listed alphabetically):
Allison Cantor, University of South Florida (poster)
MATERNAL DIET IN RURAL COSTA RICA: IDENTIFYING CULTURAL NORMS AND CHANGING TRENDS WITH IMPLICATIONS FOR THE DEVELOPMENTAL ORIGINS OF OBESITY-RELATED DISORDERS.

Carolyn Jost Robinson, Purdue University (paper, w/Melissa Remis)
SYNERGISTIC HUMAN-WILDLIFE RELATIONSHIPS IN A PROTECTED AREA: ECOLOGICAL AND POLITICAL ENTANGLEMENTS.

Mary Elisabeth Timm, University of Nevada Las Vegas (paper, w/Debra Martin and Jamie Vilos)
FISHING AND FARMING IN THE DESERT: AN ANALYSIS OF SACRO-ILIAC ENTHESES IN A BRONZE AGE (C. 2200-2000 BC) POPULATION

Revisiting a controversy of debated etiology

It may be a new year, but the fascination with the #AAAfail story marches onward. Regarding the change of wording to the LRP, I had two central concerns: 1) the wording itself (and the constituency involved in making it and their rationale for doing so) and 2) the response by the AAA EB to criticism and concern from within its own anthropological community. Though related, these are separate entities in many ways. I think the What is Anthropology? statement is a wonderful antidote to the unfortunate damage done by the LRP changes, but I have also been concerned by the lack of public acknowledgment by AAA that debate took place “in house”, not only in the pages of the NY Times, as well as minimal disclosure of the process that preceeded these changes.

Recent blog posts by fellow anthropologists have raised more interesting questions about the nature of the reaction within the anthropological community. For example, I found it particularly interesting that UC Berkeley archaeologist Rosemary Joyce refers to the situation as a "manufactured controversy" based on Wade's reporting. As Dr. Joyce reminds us, Wade did indeed draw really unfortunate and inaccurate battle lines (e.g. anthropologists who study things like gender and race versus those who are scientists). Few anthropologists (any?) subscribed to this sensationalized version of events, and the AAA EB was right to smack Wade down on this front. However, as many of you know and have personally experienced, there has been genuine, non-manufactured controversy within our discipline. There have been active disagreements among anthropologists about how much value to ascribe to the wording itself and how to interpret the EB's actions that preceded and followed. Some of us have argued that it’s no big deal and have accepted the wording and EB response as appropriate and inclusive while others have engaged in serious critique of both. I have not performed statistics on this, but it is my (perhaps self-serving) impression that the latter view is largely held by biological anthropologists and some archaeologists.

Does this necessarily signify the huge dichotomous rift portrayed by the NY Times, or that I advocate an “us vs. them” binary, a resurrection of the “science wars”? No, what’s going on is far more nuanced than that. But to deny that the media coverage did indeed capture some element of internal tensions doesn’t seem to me to be a productive means of moving forward. If you experience something and I tell you that *I* didn’t experience it that way so your experience is not of relevance to me, it’s difficult to work together toward a collaborative solution of better understanding. And to dismiss this issue as merely a rehashing of science wars by a hopelessly entrenched faction also fails to provide a pathway to greater inclusivity and a restoration of the holism American anthropology has always aspired to (and been frustrated by). I think it is unwise to disguise or minimize real disagreement and critique in the interest of debunking Wade's unfortunate coverage. It is very real that the AAA as an organization and conference have long been viewed as irrelevant to many of the very people it ostensibly wants to contain under its umbrella, and the "science" situation (not the one portrayed in the media, but the one that really happened) only served to further that impression. That's a problem for all of us, even those who found the whole thing rather yawn-inducing.

I’ve gained really interesting perspective from my colleagues who have viewed this situation very differently than I do, and in many ways I have tempered some of my original positions as a result. Greg Downey at Neuroanthroplogy recently made some excellent arguments against allowing ideological positioning to poison our common goals as researchers and teachers:
I sound like my mother, pleading with everyone for greater civility and politeness (‘Why can’t you STOP YELLING!?’ I yell.). But I think we’re getting played when we fall for the crowding cheering us on to ‘Fight! Fight!’ Do we really want to demolish our home discipline, one that offers us unique opportunities that we would not get were we to find other homes? Do we really look around and, aside from the truly pathological departments, and think we’d be better off in some other discipline? And even if you do want to move on to a difference discipline, can’t you leave anthropology here for those of us who love the joint?

I agree with Greg that allowing ourselves to be goaded into a fight is counterproductive. And I’ll admit that I’ve contributed my share of arm-waving and sarcasm in ways that perhaps some colleagues and commentators have found glib or unprofessional. Without apology, I am passionate about this discipline and what I do. As I posted earlier, my position in a non-anthropology department has engendered a surprising-to-me drive to engage in anthropology on a scale I had not considered before. I continue to advocate for greater communication across the span of anthropological endeavors while also pointing out where obstacles to this noble goal still exist.

I know (and frankly am envious) that many anthropologists have the good fortune of having been trained in or currently work in really cohesive collaborative programs in which all the fields equally respect one another (even when the numbers are skewed). I know there are programs in which all anthropology grad students are required to take a holistic course of study. That is commendable and may well be something to which the discipline as a whole should aspire, but the reality remains that many of us don't have that experience and that does have unfortunate and real consequences. As I posted earlier here ("it is like confessing a murder"), “my training in cultural anthropology at both the undergraduate and graduate levels is inadequate. That lack of training fostered a lack of interest, and a sense of distance and illiteracy (reading the titles of papers and symposia in the AAA program only heighten my sense of speaking a different language). I don't know what's going on in cultural anthropology today; I mostly just feel like it's water I'd rather not tread. I'm not taking pride in that assertion, I'm just sayin'. And I doubt I'm alone. I honestly don't know what it means to be an integrated anthropologist, but I'm trying to learn.”

The point I’m trying to make is that while I wholeheartedly agree that there is much to be lost by turning this into an internal fight, we need to embrace the reality that many of us did/do indeed feel threatened or at least dismissed by not only the wording but also the subsequent fallout if we want to better understand the state of contemporary American anthropology and shape its future.