Contesting property: urban commons,statecraft, and the ‘tyranny’ of liberalism in Lebanon

As heterogeneous forms of commodification threaten the survival of urban commons worldwide, in Beirut a group of residents and professionals has resorted to civic advocacy to keep the beach of Dalieh of Raouche accessible, including calling on public authorities to intervene. Combining Polanyian analysis and recent developments in the anthropology of the state, civic advocacy is recast here as a case of ‘grassroots’ statecraft, adapted to, as well as shaped by, the logics and discourses of late capitalism that it seeks to undo. As such, counter-movements are reconceptualized as not only defensive, but also offensive and explicitly generative of new political projects and modes of governance. At the same time, the article pushes the argument further to suggest that ‘grassroots’ statecraft in the context of the protection of the commons is inherently multivocal, and that calls for, and rejection of, state intervention may be contained at once within this counter-movement, forced to coexist by the constraints imposed by the neoliberal political-economic system it confronts.     

Social Relations and the Green Critique of Capitalism in Melanesia

ABSTRACT  In this article, I explore what a critical environmental perspective would look like in Melanesia, where the distinction between nature and culture, and the expectation that science interprets the former in terms of the latter, may not apply. I consider changes in scientific knowledge production and the shift from cultural ecology to political ecology in Melanesian anthropology, including the argument that Melanesians are neither conservationists nor environmentalists. In contrast, I show how people exposed to pollution from the Ok Tedi copper and gold mine in Papua New Guinea mobilize their understandings of difference in a green critique of capitalism. I examine a strategy session of local activists, a public meeting about their campaign against the mine, and a sorcery tribunal. Finally, I suggest that Melanesian ideas about social relations provide a useful ethnographic analogy for thinking about the mobility and short temporal horizons of contemporary capitalism.     

Australian Anthropologists and Public Anthropology

In 2004, the authors convened a session entitled ‘Public Anthropology’ at the Australian Anthropology Society's annual conference. The session examined the development of a specific stream of public anthropology in the USA and Britain and its articulation by writers such as Robert Borofsky in the aftermath of the Yanomami controversy and Richard Werbner in the African context. In pursuing this discussion, we identify three key characteristics that distinguish public anthropology: the broader application of ethnography to urgent and political social issues in a way that shows the profoundly relational nature of current crises to historical, political and local events and forces; a focus on this approach as a central aspect of training, particularly at the postgraduate level; and an active and accessible engagement in public discussion and debate. We present a short case study from Skidmore's research on disease, suffering and the health system in Burma to illustrate ways in which a public anthropology approach could represent the current health crisis in Burma in an effective manner. Drawing also on the work of our fellow panellists, we argue for the timeliness of the development of a public anthropology stream in Australia and for the deliberate inclusion of public anthropology in the Australian Anthropology Society's mandate.     

The American Anthropological Association and the Values of Science, 1935-70

American anthropologists have repeatedly addressed questions about the nature of anthropology as a science and the relationship of anthropology to society. Complex interactions between anthropology and political events in American life have challenged definitions of science, including anthropologists as citizens, scientists, and professionals and the roles they appropriately play. A series of exchanges and events between the 1930s and 1970 are examined in order to shed light on some of the recurrent dilemmas of definition and practice in anthropology as anthropologists have grappled with them in different times and in relation to different contexts. [Keywords: U.S. anthropology, U.S. history, science]     

Physical Anthropology: The Search for General Processes and Principles

Physical anthropology consists of two interdependent types of study: (1) the biological history of man and (2) general biological processes in man (such as mechanisms of evolution and growth). Popular interest may focus on the former, the fascinating story of the origin of man and of specific people, but the latter affords physical anthropology potential practical value in respect to medicine, dentistry, public health, and population policy. The study of general processes is the study of human beings in particular situations, not for what we can learn about these particular populations but for the sake of generalization about mankind anywhere in comparable situations. This is, of course, the purpose of experimental science in general, but in anthropology the method is usually comparative. Long ago the study of the growth of the two sexes and of children in different countries was started on a comparative basis as was the study of the so-called secular change in adult stature. By 1911 Franz Boas had compared the changes in stature and head form of children of several different immigrant groups in the United States. There have since been comparative studies of the amount and distribution of body fat (but not yet adequate comparative measurements of the relation of tissue components to diet and to diseases). Demographic patterns, inbreeding, outbreeding, and their effects are other general problems. The Human Adaptability Project of the International Biological Program promises studies of human response to heat, cold, altitude, and other conditions on a wide international basis. If supported, these could turn physical anthropology's search in a useful direction. The functional biology of people of even out-of-the-way communities will be compared with each other. These studies can yield general statements concerning human response to types of ecological situation including such sociocultural conditions as those of hunting-gathering tribes and urban slums.     

Anthropology and psychiatry

In this paper anthropology and psychiatry are defined as well as their scientific area, their methods and research objectives; the high level of their mutual thematic and methodological complementarity has been emphasized. The sociocultural factors which are inherent in the area of cultural anthropology can affect mental health in a number of ways: by forming a certain personality type that is predisposed for a certain type of disorder, by an education model which increases the frequency of some disorders, by criticism and sanctions of a certain behaviour that is actually desirable from the point of view of mental health preservation, by supporting and rewarding a behaviour model that is harmful for mental health; by its complexity and, in some of the segments, by mutual contradictions they can cause mental disorders; by forming symptoms of mental disorders i.e. by a pathoplastic action through which they become an area of scientific interest of cultural psychiatry. Anthropology directs psychiatry towards creating preventive and therapeutic programs that accept the mutual influence and interconnectedness of socio-cultural conditions and the mental health status.     

Epidemiological reflections of the contribution of anthropology to public health policy and practice

Academic disciplines like anthropology and epidemiology provide a niche for researchers to speak the same language, and to interrogate the assumptions that they use to investigate problems. How anthropological and epidemiological methods communicate and relate to each other affects the way public health policy is created but the philosophical underpinnings of each discipline makes this difficult. Anthropology is reflective, subjective and investigates complexity and the individual; epidemiology, in contrast, is objective and studies populations. Within epidemiological methods there is the utilitarian concept of potentially sacrificing the interests of the individual for the benefits of maximizing population welfare, whereas in anthropology the individual is always included. Other strengths of anthropology in the creation of public health policy include: its attention to complexity, questioning the familiar; helping with language and translation; reconfiguring boundaries to create novel frameworks; and being reflective. Public health requires research that is multi-, inter- and trans-disciplinary. To do this, there is a need for each discipline to respect the 'dignity of difference' between disciplines in order to help create appropriate and effective public health policy.     

Surrender to the Market: Thoughts on Anthropology,The Body Shop,and Intellectuals1

The direction of anthropology over the last century is tied to the shifts from colonialism to postcolonialism and from modernism to postmodernism. These shifts have seen the thoroughgoing incorporation of the world population into the economic, political and juridical domain established through the last throes of colonialism and the transmutations of capitalism and the State. Anthropology, a discipline whose history shows close and regular links with colonial government, also transforms in association with the world it describes and partly creates. Two dominant trends in contemporary anthropology—applied consultancy and historicist self‐reflexivity—are compared for the ways they represent the transmutation, which is characterised, following Fredric Jameson as ‘the surrender to the market’. In this way it is asserted that just as the discipline had hitherto revealed its links to colonialism, it now reveals its links to globalisation through a form of commodified self‐obsession. To illustrate this quality the paper considers the global chain of cosmetics stores, The Body Shop, as an example of ‘late capitalism’ and the moral juridical framework of globalisation. Finally, it treats these developments in anthropology as more generally affecting intellectuals and knowledge production through the promotion of intellectual ‘silence’.     

Physical anthropology,peace and justice: Some observations

Human biological well being is a concern of physical anthropology. Genetic determinants and also sociocultural factors, which operate through biological bases, affect human biological quality. Several populations from different parts of the globe have been identified where varieties of detrimental genes occur in considerable numbers influencing health and some other related biological aspects of human life. Injustice will be done to those populations if necessary measures are not undertaken to improve their biological qualities. Peace cannot prevail in an atmosphere where people are deprived of the basic amenities for survival and maintenance of good health.     

Parent-offspring conflict and the cultural ecology of breast-feeding

Lactation constitutes a major focus for research in international health because of its dramatic impact on child survival; evolutionary biology has investigated lactation as an important aspect of parenting strategy, with implications for understanding parent-offspring conflict. These perspectives are brought together in an attempt to develop integrated models for an issue of key international health concern: the duration of exclusive breast-feeding and the timing of weaning. This analysis highlights the relevance of evolutionary theory for practical problems in public health, and it suggests the utility of public health outcomes for addressing evolutionary questions. Thomas McDade received his Ph.D. degree in anthropology from Emory University in 1999 and is currently an assistant professor in the anthropology department at Northwestern University. His research interests include biocultural perspectives on issues related to health and human development, with current attention focused on the cultural and evolutionary ecology of human immune function.     

Anthropologies of art

This paper discusses how different conceptions of the idea of ‘anthropology’ entail different views of the ‘anthropology of art’. The prevailing notion of anthropology as the Western study of small-scale non-Western societies leads to a conception of the anthropology of art as dealing with the visual arts of these societies or cultures. Anthropology is sometimes also interpreted as referring to a particular approach that is applicable in examining sociocultural phenomena in whatever culture, including its art forms. Both conceptions of anthropology may be considered subsidiary to a more encompassing view of anthropology as the multidisciplinary study of humankind. Following this view, the anthropology of art becomes the comprehensive examination of art in human existence. As such it would coincide with World Art Studies, conceived as the global and multidisciplinary study of the visual arts.     

Realizing the promise of population biobanks: a new model for translation

The promise of science lies in expectations of its benefits to societies and is matched by expectations of the realisation of the significant public investment in that science. In this paper, we undertake a methodological analysis of the science of biobanking and a sociological analysis of translational research in relation to biobanking. Part of global and local endeavours to translate raw biomedical evidence into practice, biobanks aim to provide a platform for generating new scientific knowledge to inform development of new policies, systems and interventions to enhance the public’s health. Effectively translating scientific knowledge into routine practice, however, involves more than good science. Although biobanks undoubtedly provide a fundamental resource for both clinical and public health practice, their potentiating ontology—that their outputs are perpetually a promise of scientific knowledge generation—renders translation rather less straightforward than drug discovery and treatment implementation. Biobanking science, therefore, provides a perfect counterpoint against which to test the bounds of translational research. We argue that translational research is a contextual and cumulative process: one that is necessarily dynamic and interactive and involves multiple actors. We propose a new multidimensional model of translational research which enables us to imagine a new paradigm: one that takes us from bench to bedside to backyard and beyond, that is, attentive to the social and political context of translational science, and is cognisant of all the players in that process be they researchers, health professionals, policy makers, industry representatives, members of the public or research participants, amongst others.     

Optimizing the dynamic zero-COVID policy in China

There has been no consensus about the best public health strategy for managing COVID-19 due to differences in sociocultural, political and economic contexts between countries. The central government of China has emphasized the importance of maintaining the dynamic zero-COVID policy in combating resurgences of new variants. To optimize the dynamic zero-COVID policy for future COVID-19 outbreaks in China, this article outlines a comprehensive strategy that should be considered.     

Anthropology in the Public Sphere, 2008: Emerging Trends and Significant Impacts

ABSTRACT   The themes, trends, and significant events of 2008 demonstrate that anthropology has established a new foothold in the public sphere—one that makes the most of novel forms of communication to reach far beyond the ivory tower to disseminate knowledge widely and freely. This review focuses on six topical areas of robust anthropological research in 2008 that also addressed some of the year's most pressing problems and issues, including the following: (1) war and peace; (2) climate change; (3) natural, industrial, and development-induced disaster recovery; (4) human rights; (5) health disparities; and (6) racial understanding, politics, and equity in the United States. It concludes by addressing some emerging issues in 2009 that especially require anthropological attention and insight, if we are to move beyond "business as usual."[Keywords: practicing anthropology, public anthropology, 2009 trends, anthropological impacts]     

For Whom the Bell Tolls: Anthropologists Advising on Public Policy

What knowledge do cultural anthropologists have to contribute to public policy? What problems have they encountered and what roles should they assume? After reviewing several positions, this paper suggests that anthropologists consider contributing to public policy through other branches of government in addition to the executive. Emphasis is given to the legislative branch in a representative democracy. Although the paper discusses the United States, the approach ought to be applicable to other representative systems as well. [public policy, political anthropology, applied anthropology, ethics]     

How Conservative Are Evolutionary Anthropologists?

The application of evolutionary theory to human behavior has elicited a variety of critiques, some of which charge that this approach expresses or encourages conservative or reactionary political agendas. In a survey of graduate students in psychology, Tybur, Miller, and Gangestad (Human Nature, 18, 313-328, 2007) found that the political attitudes of those who use an evolutionary approach did not differ from those of other psychology grad students. Here, we present results from a directed online survey of a broad sample of graduate students in anthropology that assays political views. We found that evolutionary anthropology graduate students were very liberal in their political beliefs, overwhelmingly voted for a liberal U.S. presidential candidate in the 2008 election, and identified with liberal political parties; in this, they were almost indistinguishable from non-evolutionary anthropology students. Our results contradict the view that evolutionary anthropologists hold conservative or reactionary political views. We discuss some possible reasons for the persistence of this view in terms of the sociology of science.     

‘Anthropologists are Talking’:About Islam,Muslims and Law in Contemporary Europe

Abstract

In contemporary Europe, Islam and Muslims are rightly or wrongly often perceived as the ‘other’. Among the central foci of concern in many Western European countries with a significant presence of Muslims, the law has featured prominently in recent years. What can anthropology tell us about the multiple ways in which European Muslims engage with liberal and secular laws and the state? Perhaps no other contemporary scholar in anthropology has written more extensively about these issues than Professor John R. Bowen. As part of an ongoing series in public anthropology, Professor Bowen engaged in a public conversation with Professor Oddbjørn Leirvik and Postdoctoral Fellow Sindre Bangstad at The House of Literature in Oslo, Norway on 27 September 2011. Due to technical failures, the conversation had to be re-recorded at the Grand Hotel in Oslo on 28 September 2011.     

The Profession of the Color Blind: Sociocultural Anthropology and Racism in the 21st Century

In this essay, I suggest that American sociocultural anthropology has been a "color blind" profession for nearly a half century and that, as a discipline, we need to restore and refine our color perceptions in order to fight the supposedly fixed opposition in American society between "black" and "white" and deal with the racist consequences of this folk opposition. In the first section, 'How Anthropology Became 'Color Blind,'" I delineate the circumstances under which anthropology became the "color blind" profession. In the second section, "Teaching Color Blindness," I discuss the tendency, in teaching sociocultural anthropology, to ignore racism and its effects. In the final section, "Restoring Color Vision," I take up the questions of what the profession needs to do next to cope with racism and its consequences, emphasizing especially the issue of group identities, how they are formulated, inculcated, and overcome, and proposing a Foucauldian model—following Foucault's lead in analyzing relations of biopower and race—for formulating new ways of responding to and resisting the inevitable recastings of racist ideas,     

Video for Development

This paper breaches the traditional frontiers of visual anthropology and argues for a greater advocacy role within the research-based community. Arguing that visual anthropology should now move “beyond theory” to the more pragmatic science of “development communication,” the paper examines techniques commonly used in ethnographic film, and analyzes media case studies from development projects in Egypt and Pakistan. It demonstrates that video can capture voices and communicate ideas to planners and policy makers better than any other communication tool, and achieve a greater impact in transforming, for example, the image of rural women and the hierarchies of power that constrain their participation in development. It concludes that visual anthropologists, as media producers, are uniquely well equipped to use their expertise and knowledge of the field and of local languages to act as mediators, spurring interactions and building consensus between different developmental “actors.” In this way they could work to instigate public health reforms in poor communities and contribute to wealth creation by engaging in the process of development communications.