The Future of Anthropology

The future of anthropology depends on what it contributes, both to thought and to society. Whether it survives, flourishes, or becomes extinct depends on anthropology's ability to become an intregal and significant, yet not subservient, part of our culture and society. To flourish, we must press outward; we must mobilize our work and ourselves to make a difference beyond the discipline and the academy. This objective implies change in our priorities and hence in our work.     

The Anthropology of Welfare

The Anthropology of Welfare. Iain R. Edgar and Andrew Russell. eds. New York: Routledge, 1998. 268 pp.     

Distinguished Lecture in General Anthropology: The Anthropology of Trouble

This essay was presented as the Distinguished Lecture in General Anthropology at the 91st Annual Meeting of the American Anthropological Association, December 4, 1992, in San Francisco, California.     

The Ethnographer's Eye: Ways of Seeing in Modern Anthropology: Visual Methods in Social Research

The Ethnographer's Eye: Ways of Seeing in Modern Anthropology. Anna Grimshaw. Cambridge: University of Cambridge Press, 2001. 222 pp.
Visual Methods in Social Research. Marcus Banks. New York City: Sage Publications, 2001. 201 pp.     

The Anthropology of Modern Human Teeth: Dental Morphology and Its Variation in Recent Human Populations

The Anthropology of Modern Human Teeth: Dental Morphology and Its Variation in Recent Human Populations. G. Richard Scott and Christy G. Turner 11. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1997.382 pp.     

The Anthropology of Human Residues

Ethnoarchaeology is a new kind of anthropology—the anthropology of human residue formation. Since discard behavior and residue formation, like language, are universal human characteristics, their patterning can be studied in a manner akin to grammar in languages. Consistent observed relationships between human behavior and material residues in contemporary societies may be posited as propositions for cross-cultural testing and comparison with prehistoric human residues. Two aspects of ethnoarchaeology—the derivation of these lawlike propositions and the materialist approach that this effort represents—are demonstrated with data on ethnographic behavior relating to lithic raw materials among the Western Desert aborigines of Australia. In particular, this study examines the amounts of lithic raw material that are selected, used, and ultimately discarded by an aborigine man during an average year and the way in which the presence of raw materials from distant sources ("exotic" stones) in aboriginal habitation campsites can be explained in terms of nonmaterial, i.e., ideational, aspects of behavior. The argument here is that the ethnoarchaeologist is most effective when he uses a materialist approach in studying patterns of human residue formation to discover the totality of behavior that best explains these patterns . [ethnoarchaeology, discard behavior, materialist approach, Australian desert aborigines]     

The New Ecological Anthropology

Older ecologies have been remiss in the narrowness of their spatial and temporal horizons, their functionalist assumptions, and their apolitical character. Suspending functionalist assumptions and an emphasis upon (homeo)stasis, the new ecological anthropology is located at the intersection of global, national, regional, and local systems, studying the outcome of the interaction of multiple levels and multiple factors. It blends theoretical and empirical research with applied, policy-directed, and critical work in what Rappaport called an engaged anthropology; and it is otherwise attuned to the political aspects and implications of ecological processes. Carefully laying out a critique of previous ecologies by way of announcing newer approaches, the article insists on the need to recognize the importance of culture mediations in ecological processes rather than treating culture as epiphenomenal and as a mere adaptive tool. It closes with a discussion of the methodologies appropriate to the new ecological anthropology. [the new ecology, political ecology, applied or engaged anthropology, linkages methodology]     

The Anthropology of Globalization: Cultural Anthropology Enters the 21st Century

The Anthropology of Globalization: Cultural Anthropology Enters the 21st Century. Ted C. Lewellen. Westport: Bergin and Garvey, 2002. 282 pp.