Andy White Anthropology
  • Home
  • Fake Hercules Swords
  • Research Interests
    • Complexity Science
    • Prehistoric Social Networks
    • Eastern Woodlands Prehistory
    • Ancient Giants
  • Blog

American Anthropological Association Confused About What Biological Anthropology Is

2/10/2016

 
I'm sure the American Anthropological Association (AAA) does a lot of great things. I'm not a member even though the AAA is the flagship association of my discipline. I joined at one point because I had to attend the meetings for job interviews, but I let my membership lapse soon after because I couldn't see that the benefits justified the $200 annual dues.

Along with the high price tag (and the regressive dues structure), several "what the hell, AAA?" moments have dampened my enthusiasm. The most notable was the removal of the word "science" from  the AAA's long-range plan in 2010. I'm an anthropologist, an archaeologist, and a scientist. It doesn't thrill me that the AAA apparently finds the word "science" too prickly to embrace. 

Here's another one for the "what the hell, AAA?" pile. This morning on Facebook, one of my biological anthropology friends posted a photo of a new poster printed by the AAA to celebrate World Anthropology Day: 
Picture
Look at the description of physical anthropology:
"Physical Anthropology + Studies animal origins and the biologically determined nature of humankind."
Animal origins? Biologically determined nature?  Seriously, AAA?

That definition in no way reflects the objects of study or the questions of physical/biological anthropology.  It is so dumb, in fact, that it's hard to even dissect how wrong it really is.

The last time I checked, multicellular, eukaryotic organisms of the kingdom Animalia (aka "animals") originated over 600 million years ago. Perhaps that has changed, however, and I'm not up to date. I wouldn't know, you see, because I'm an anthropologist AND ANIMAL ORIGINS IS NOT WHAT I STUDY.

I don't know what percentage of physical anthropologists would say they are studying the "biologically determined nature of humankind," but it certainly would not be large. Does the study of the origins and meaning of human variation constitute the study of the "biologically determined nature of humankind"? What about the study of human evolution? What about the study of health, demography, fertility, mortality?  

I don't do physical anthropology full time, but I've done it in the past (as both an undergraduate and for my M.A. thesis) and I teach aspects of it in my undergraduate classes now. I chafe at the definition on that poster, and I'm betting a lot of my physical anthropology friends will also not look kindly upon it. How did it get on there? How in the world does the AAA produce a poster, apparently intended to educate the public, that says that physical anthropologists study the "origins of animals" and the "biologically determined nature of humankind"?

I just don't get it.

I'm glad I didn't help pay for it. 
Jonathan Feinstein
2/10/2016 01:54:28 pm

I'm going to date myself a bit here but back when I was an undergrad I had Physical Anthropology with Donald Johanson (yes, this was shortly before he found Lucy and actually I thought he thought the subject in an interesting and engaging manner). Some years later I noticed he was calling himself a "Paleoanthropologist" instead of a physical anthropologist and now I wonder if that was due to this sort of definition.

Admittedly the class did cover the entire order of Primates, so I suppose one might try to extend that back through the entire animal kingdom,, but the emphasis was on hominids and the development of modern _H. sapiens_ In the class Don mentioned that primates evolved from the insectivores and pretty much went on from there. Anything further back in our evolutionary tree I would normally assign to the study of paleontology.

Andrew Gurstelle
2/10/2016 04:30:22 pm

It could just be sloppy syntax.
Animal origins of humankind and biologically determined nature of humankind.
I take it they mean animal in the popular sense as an opposition to human (ie, the fossils of non-human primates = animal origins).
Still very limited, though, for the reasons you mentioned.

I have not seen the actual poster but what is with the cryptic phrase of "Enforcement Humanitarian Efforts" under Museum Anthropology? I feel like I'm not menacing enough for that to be part of my job.

Jose S
2/10/2016 06:44:53 pm

Last time I checked:

anthropo-

combining form
prefix: anthropo-

human; of a human being.
"anthropometry"

relating to humankind.
"anthropology"

Origin

from Greek anthrōpos ‘human being.’

I could understand the animal connection if, and only if, the word anthropomorphic was tied to it as it is, in my view, to primates.

And no, I am not an anthropologist so I may be way off.

Jonathan Feinstein
2/11/2016 08:30:15 am

There are many "hard scientists" who do not consider subjects like anthropology, sociology, history and other social sciences as "real science." My usual response has normally been that while perhaps we cannot quantify the same sort of hard-set laws to anthropology we can to chemistry or physics, that the same scientific method can and is applied. So perhaps anthropology is not a science by the definition of those "hard scientists", but it IS a scientific discipline.

As you have pointed out, Andy, we must hold ourselves to the same standards the hard sciences are held too. If we come up with a wide range of results that are harder to predict, that's simply because there is still so much to learn. As we learn more, the quantification of the results we get from our studies becomes gradually firmer because whether anthropology or archaeology is a science or a scientific discipline, anthropologists and archaeologists are scientists using scientific methods in their studies.

Andy White
2/11/2016 12:04:18 pm

The "science" question in this case is more an issue of cultural anthropologists being uncomfortable with calling themselves "scientists." In my opinion, four-field anthropology was a scientific endeavor from the outset and should remain so. Humans and human societies and cultures are complex and tough to analyze, but that doesn't mean their somehow so special that they can't be understood within a scientific framework. That's my opinion, anyway.

The blunder in the poster is particularly unfortunate because it resonates with the feeling of many of us on the "science" side of anthropology that the "humanist" side (composed mostly of socio-cultural anthropologists) has relatively little regard for or understanding of what we do (and why all four fields belong together under the big tent of anthropology).

R
2/12/2016 04:15:41 pm

To be completely honest I don't see the problem here. I have many colleagues who consider themselves biological anthropologists but find themselves looking more at bovid morphology than that of hominins. Also, I happen to study mostly primates and rarely use human material, and I consider myself a biological anthropologist. I guess one criticism I could come up with is that maybe it doesn't quite reflect the comparative work that is done across different taxa, but I don't really think it is anything offensive.

Mike Strezewsk
2/14/2016 08:35:43 pm

Best piece of info from the poster - Dax Shepard was an anthro major.


Comments are closed.

    All views expressed in my blog posts are my own. The views of those that comment are their own. That's how it works.

    I reserve the right to take down comments that I deem to be defamatory or harassing. 

    Andy White

    Email me: [email protected]

    Enter your email address:

    Delivered by FeedBurner


    Picture

    Sick of the woo?  Want to help keep honest and open dialogue about pseudo-archaeology on the internet? Please consider contributing to Woo War Two.
    Picture

    Follow updates on posts related to giants on the Modern Mythology of Giants page on Facebook.

    Archives

    May 2024
    January 2024
    January 2023
    January 2022
    November 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    March 2021
    June 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014

    Categories

    All
    3D Models
    AAA
    Adena
    Afrocentrism
    Agent Based Modeling
    Agent-based Modeling
    Aircraft
    Alabama
    Aliens
    Ancient Artifact Preservation Society
    Androgynous Fish Gods
    ANTH 227
    ANTH 291
    ANTH 322
    Anthropology History
    Anunnaki
    Appalachia
    Archaeology
    Ardipithecus
    Art
    Atlantis
    Australia
    Australopithecines
    Aviation History
    Bigfoot
    Birds
    Boas
    Book Of Mormon
    Broad River Archaeological Field School
    Bronze Age
    Caribou
    Carolina Bays
    Ceramics
    China
    Clovis
    Complexity
    Copper Culture
    Cotton Mather
    COVID-19
    Creationism
    Croatia
    Crow
    Demography
    Denisovans
    Diffusionism
    DINAA
    Dinosaurs
    Dirt Dance Floor
    Double Rows Of Teeth
    Dragonflies
    Early Archaic
    Early Woodland
    Earthworks
    Eastern Woodlands
    Eastern Woodlands Household Archaeology Data Project
    Education
    Egypt
    Europe
    Evolution
    Ewhadp
    Fake Hercules Swords
    Fetal Head Molding
    Field School
    Film
    Florida
    Forbidden Archaeology
    Forbidden History
    Four Field Anthropology
    Four-field Anthropology
    France
    Genetics
    Genus Homo
    Geology
    Geometry
    Geophysics
    Georgia
    Giants
    Giants Of Olden Times
    Gigantism
    Gigantopithecus
    Graham Hancock
    Grand Valley State
    Great Lakes
    Hollow Earth
    Homo Erectus
    Hunter Gatherers
    Hunter-gatherers
    Illinois
    India
    Indiana
    Indonesia
    Iowa
    Iraq
    Israel
    Jim Vieira
    Jobs
    Kensington Rune Stone
    Kentucky
    Kirk Project
    Late Archaic
    Lemuria
    Lithic Raw Materials
    Lithics
    Lizard Man
    Lomekwi
    Lost Continents
    Mack
    Mammoths
    Mastodons
    Maya
    Megafauna
    Megaliths
    Mesolithic
    Michigan
    Middle Archaic
    Middle Pleistocene
    Middle Woodland
    Midwest
    Minnesota
    Mississippi
    Mississippian
    Missouri
    Modeling
    Morphometric
    Mound Builder Myth
    Mu
    Music
    Nazis
    Neandertals
    Near East
    Nephilim
    Nevada
    New Mexico
    Newspapers
    New York
    North Carolina
    Oahspe
    Oak Island
    Obstetrics
    Ohio
    Ohio Valley
    Oldowan
    Olmec
    Open Data
    Paleoindian
    Paleolithic
    Pilumgate
    Pleistocene
    Pliocene
    Pre Clovis
    Pre-Clovis
    Prehistoric Families
    Pseudo Science
    Pseudo-science
    Radiocarbon
    Reality Check
    Rome
    Russia
    SAA
    Sardinia
    SCIAA
    Science
    Scientific Racism
    Sculpture
    SEAC
    Search For The Lost Giants
    Sexual Dimorphism
    Sitchin
    Social Complexity
    Social Networks
    Solutrean Hypothesis
    South Africa
    South America
    South Carolina
    Southeast
    Stone Holes
    Subsistence
    Swordgate
    Teaching
    Technology
    Teeth
    Television
    Tennessee
    Texas
    Topper
    Travel
    Travel Diaries
    Vaccines
    Washington
    Whatzit
    White Supremacists
    Wisconsin
    Woo War Two
    World War I
    World War II
    Writing
    Younger Dryas

    RSS Feed

    Picture
Proudly powered by Weebly