Comments on: Public Engagement vs. The Ontological Turn

By: Cynical Empiricist

Cynical Empiricist — Wed, 29 Jan 2014 17:20:17 +0000

Anthropology will never be relevant to anyone so long as professional meetings are centered on “the French Ontological Turn”, and not on empirical ethnographic data.

Or to put it differently

The band is playing while the Titanic is sinking.

By: courtney

courtney — Tue, 28 Jan 2014 14:10:22 +0000

I recently came across this resource and wondered why more anthropologists are not participating in the Scholars Strategy Network.
http://www.scholarsstrategynetwork.org/
Anthropologists have much insight to add to the policy fields they address – economy, health care, democracy, education, to name a few. Their roster of scholars currently includes only 3 anthropologists; it is dominated by sociologists, political scientists, and economists. Judging from their guide to membership, it looks as though they offer support in presenting information to press, public officials, and civil society forums, and help connect scholars with writing and speaking opportunities.

By: Ixak

Ixak — Sun, 26 Jan 2014 21:29:27 +0000

In reply to Katherine A. Dettwyler. Katherine, I am, of course, painting with a rather broad brush in this post. The two examples that you cited (your work and McKenna's) are wonderful examples of exactly what I was trying to get at in the paragraph following my snarky quip about the Human Terrain Project.

By: Katherine A. Dettwyler

Katherine A. Dettwyler — Fri, 24 Jan 2014 12:20:11 +0000

“Which raises a good question: aside from refusing to participate in the Human Terrain Project, what exactly is it that anthropologists do in the public eye?”

Your comments seem to be addressed mainly to cultural anthropologists, but there are other kinds of anthropologists, some of whom are very much in the public eye, at least within their realms of expertise. Just two examples, myself for normalizing breastfeeding beyond early childhood and James McKenna for normalizing cosleeping. I can think of other examples as well.