Public anthropology

Public anthropology, a concept introduced by Robert Borofsky, involves two interrelated senses of the term 'public’. The first turns inward, subjecting anthropology’s institutional practices to public scrutiny and asking why the field has struggled to produce cumulative knowledge about the populations it studies. To address this limitation, public anthropology emphasizes research transparency—notably the accessibility of fieldnotes—so that ethnographic claims can be revisited and extended over time. The second meaning turns outward, asserting anthropology’s responsibility to bear ethnographic witness to different ways of life and leveraging this knowledge to address larger social issues of our time, following the community-building model of Partners In Health.

At its core lies a commitment embodied in Justice Louis Brandeis’s famous assertion: “Publicity is justly commended as a remedy for social and industrial diseases. Sunlight is said to be the best of disinfectants; electric light the most efficient policeman” (Brandeis 1914:92).^[1]

Merrill Singer has criticized the concept of public anthropology on the grounds that it ignores applied anthropology. He wrote: "given that many applied anthropologists already do the kinds of things that are now being described as PA, it is hard to understand why a new label is needed, except as a device for distancing public anthropologists from applied anthropologists" (Singer 2000: 6). Similarly, Barbara Rylko-Bauer wrote: "one has to ask what is the purpose of these emerging labels that consciously distinguish themselves from applied/practicing anthropology? While they may serve the personal interests of those who develop them, it is hard to see how they serve the broader interests of the discipline" (Rylko-Bauer 2000: 6). Eric Haanstad responded to Singer's claim by arguing that public anthropology does not necessarily entail the exclusion of applied anthropology (Haanstad 2001a). Alan Jeffery Fields defended the concept of public anthropology by claiming it is "a useful trope for one important reason: it calls attention to the fact that there is a division between public and academic perceptions" (Fields 2001a). Rather than get drawn into what Sigmund Freud calls the “narcissism of small differences,” Paul Farmer and Robert Borofsky believe that anthropology should focus on broader issues, especially those relevant to the public at large.

The Center for a Public Anthropology’s website outlines four strategies that emphasize public anthropology’s paradigm-shifting intent (https://www.publicanthropology.org/about/)

Benefitting Others. Rejecting the minimalist ethic of “do no harm” in favor of a more positive, affirmative stance – one that seeks to benefit others by addressing social inequalities and alleviating suffering both in print and in practice.

Fostering Alternative Forms of Accountability. Challenging evaluation systems that privilege publication quantity, and instead, focusing more on the real-world impact of anthropological research.

Transparency. Calling on anthropologists to share their fieldnotes to enable cumulative knowledge, while also exposing the patronage dynamics that govern hiring and publication within the discipline.

Collaborating with others. Insisting that meaningful change requires working alongside non-academic partners rather than speaking only to disciplinary insiders.

• Public sociology

• Brandeis, Louis (1914).  Other People’s Money and How the Bankers Use It. New York: Frederick A. Stokes.
• Borofsky, Robert. 2019. An Anthropology of Anthropology. Center for Public Anthropology, Open Anthropology series. ISBN 978-1-7322241-3-1 (ebook)
• Fields, Alan Jeffrey. 2001a Responsible Public Anthropology. Public Anthropology: The Graduate Journal. Electronic document, https://web.archive.org/web/20070927101934/http://www.publicanthropology.org/Journals/Grad-j/Wisconsin/fields.htm, accessed April 12, 2007.
• Haanstad, Eric. 2001a Anthropology Revitalized: Public Anthropology and Student Activism. Public Anthropology: The Graduate Journal. Electronic document, https://www.researchgate.net/publication/303680760_Public_Anthropology_Revitalized_Public_Anthropology_and_Student_Activism, accessed September 1, 2023.
• Kubota, Gary. 2018 Ben Finney, a founder of the Polynesian Voyaging Society, dies at 83. Star Advertiser, December 31. Electronic document, https://www.staradvertiser.com/2017/05/24/breaking-news/ben-finney-a-founder-of-the-polynesian-voyaging-society-dies-at-83/ (accessed December 31, 2018).
• Rylko-Bauer, Barbara. 2000 Toward a More Inclusive Relevant Anthropology. Society for Applied Anthropology Newsletter 11(2): 6-7.
• Singer, Merrill. 2000 Why I Am Not a Public Anthropologist. Anthropology News 41(6): 6-7.

• Atalay, Sonya (2012). Community-based Archaeology: Research With, By, and for Indigenous and Local Communities. Berkeley: University of California Press. ISBN 978-0520273368.
• Borofsky, Robert (2019). An Anthropology of Anthropology. Center for Public Anthropology, Open Anthropology series. ISBN 978-1-7322241-3-1 (ebook)
• Battle-Baptiste, Whitney (2011). Black Feminist Archaeology. Walnut Creek: Left Coast Press. ISBN 978-1598743791.
• Beck, Sam; Carl A. Maida, eds. (2013). Toward Engaged Anthropology. New York: Berghahn Books. ISBN 978-0857459107.
• Behar, Ruth (1997). Vulnerable Observer: Anthropology that Breaks Your Heart. Boston: Beacon Press. ISBN 0807046310.
• Caliskan, Koray (2022). "The Great Tragedy of Anthropology: An Interview with Gillian Tett." Journal of Cultural Economy (December 7). Taylor & Francis online.
• Delle, James A.; Stephen A. Mrozowski; Robert Paynter, eds. (2000). Lines that Divide: Historical Archaeologies of Race, Class, and Gender. Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press. ISBN 1572330864.
• Farmer, Paul (2005). Pathologies of Power: Health, Human Rights, and the New War on the Poor (2 ed.). Berkeley: University of California Press. ISBN 978-0-520-24326-2.
• Harrison, Ira E. and Harrison, Faye V. Eds. (1998). African American Pioneers in Anthropology. Urbana: University of Illinois Press. ISBN 0252067363
• Harrison, Faye. V. (1997) Decolonizing Anthropology: Moving Further Toward an Anthropology of Liberation. Washington D.C.: American Anthropological Association. ISBN 0913167835
• Luktehaus, Nancy C. 2008. Margaret Mead: The Making of An American Icon. Princeton: Princeton University Press. ISBN 0691148082
• Low, Setha M.; Sally Engle Merry (October 2010). "Engaged Anthropology: Diversity and Dilemmas: An Introduction to Supplement 2" (PDF). Current Anthropology. 51 (S2). Chicago: University of Chicago Press: S203 – S226. doi:10.1086/653837. JSTOR 10.1086/653837. S2CID 142822475.
• Sanford, Victoria; Asale Angel-Ajani, eds. (2006). Engaged Observer: Anthropology, Advocacy, and Activism. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press. ISBN 0813538920.
• Spector, Janet D. (1993). What This Awl Means: Feminist Archaeology at a Wahpeton Dakota Village. St. Paul: Minnesota Historical Society Press. ISBN 0873512782.
• Tett, Gillian. (2021). Anthro-Vision: A New Way to See in Business and Life. New York: Simon & Schuster.

• The Prism: Anthropological Reflections on Culture & Society
• Public Anthropology.org
• Partners In Health