{"id":3622,"date":"2025-01-26T22:45:43","date_gmt":"2025-01-26T22:45:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/waunet.org\/wcaa\/?p=3622"},"modified":"2025-02-27T23:01:07","modified_gmt":"2025-02-27T23:01:07","slug":"oct-15-2024-wcaa-delegates-meeting-the-future-of-anthropology","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/waunet.org\/wcaa\/delegates-meeting\/oct-15-2024-wcaa-delegates-meeting-the-future-of-anthropology\/","title":{"rendered":"Oct 15, 2024 – WCAA Delegates Meeting: The Future of Anthropology"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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\u00a0<\/p>

WCAA Delegates\u2019 Meeting\u00a0<\/b><\/p>

October 15, 2024<\/b><\/p>

What is the Future of Anthropology?<\/b><\/p>

\u00a0<\/p>

In attendance: Gordon Mathews, Andrea Zhouri, Antonio Cadierno, Bela Feldman-Bianco, Junji Koizumi, Vesna Vucinic, Andrew \u2018Mugsy\u2019 Spiegel, Dorothy Zinn, Ed Liebow, Fernando Salmeron, Francesca Declich, Gabby Dlamini, Helen Macdonald, Marisa Ruiz Trejo, Satoshi Tanahashi, Silvia Hirsch, Soumaya Triki, Virginia Dominguez, Mimina Pateraki, Francine Saillant and Michel Bouchard<\/span><\/p>



<\/p>

Bela Feldman-Bianco discussed what the meeting today will consist of: both the future of anthropology, especially given the current situation of precarity for many in the discipline, and also the anthropology of the future, given AI and other technological advances. What is the role of anthropology, given that it is not seen as having an economic impact and may not be seen as facilitating entrance into the job market?<\/span><\/p>

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Antonio Cadierno highlighted the challenges that are being faced by the academy in Spain\u2014anthropology is very weak in both the academic and the professional world. Anthropology is relatively new, and the general public in Spain does not yet know what it is, with a relatively small number of students.<\/span><\/p>

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Mimina Pateraki noted this is an essential time for anthropology and ethnography to highlight how to give people a better understanding of their daily lives, what is happening in the lives of individuals and communities. The goal is to enrich both the public and private sectors. Anthropology is a voice that can talk for human beings.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

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Francine Saillant’s question was how we can best collaborate with other disciplines. Anthropology is fragile at present, as is humanism.\u00a0 The value of the human sciences must be highlighted, but we must define what we are striving for as anthropologists. There is also economics\u2014can a student with an anthropology degree get a good job? There is also the issue of describing. Clifford Geertz wrote of thick description, but with all the new technologies, where do we go now? With new technologies, what is not known by many of its practitioners is the issue of description, and how to fully describe the human experience.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

\u00a0<\/p>

Andrea Zhouri noted that in Brazil, there are active organisations of social sciences and the humanities.\u00a0 When it comes to climate change, anthropologists and other humanists and social scientists are rarely consulted even if anthropologists are actively researching the issues. Though the scene is grim in Spain, as we have heard, there is enthusiasm towards anthropology in Brazil.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

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Silvia Hirsch noted that in Argentina the government vetoed a law funding public universities, which have been free of charge in Argentina, creating a very difficult situation and putting at risk the continuity of these universities. However, anthropologists continue to do what they have always done, teaching, writing, doing research; there is considerable enthusiasm for the discipline, and an outburst of academic activity.<\/span><\/p>

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Gabby Dlamini highlighted that there are more postgraduate students in anthropology, but there is a dip in undergraduate students. With new technologies, there is a need for people to translate the technology to the population, to help build the interface between individuals and new technologies\u2014students with anthropology degrees can do that.\u00a0 Anthropology can teach about the post-human and about how technology is changing human reality.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

\u00a0<\/p>

Marisa Ruiz Trejo noted that in recent last years, in Mexico, there was a decrease in undergraduate and graduate enrollment not only in anthropology, but in many other fields. In the last three years at several big universities there was a 50% decrease in the number of applications to study anthropology as postgraduates. The reasons could be that maybe students do not see a future in studying anthropology or they do not see what anthropology has to offer, or they do not see an economic way to make a living through anthropology. There has been less interest in our field. Is anthropology a dying discipline? Mexican anthropologists see anthropology as a quite lively discipline. However in the face of the rise of the extreme right, conservative and anti-feminist policies, anthropologists still need to talk about question of gendered violence, migration, technology and identities, and other issues that are prevalent in a complex world. Anthropology can still have important contributions to resolve the main problems of humanity. We consider that AI will not replace human reflection, critical analysis, and committed social activism, but it can be an important tool for teaching and may transform how we learn.<\/span><\/p>

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Soumaya Triki, representing the Tunisian association of anthropology, spoke of how the principal question is one of how anthropologists envision the future of anthropology. There are still the classical approaches of anthropology that some anthropologists follow. The other approach is interdisciplinary, transdisciplinary anthropology, where there is constructive research with multiple disciplines collaborating. The second approach represents a bright future of anthropology with the field expanding to cover new fields. Within this second approach, anthropologists should not only look at the human condition, but also present solutions to our human problems.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

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Ed Liebow spoke of how, in the USA, there is a general decrease in public trust in higher education. There is questioning as to whether any college degree is worth pursuing. There is an uneven distribution in the prospects for anthropology. In the US, there are 3,000 institutions that grant bachelor\u2019s degrees in anthropology and some 120 universities that grant PhDs. But the large majority of faculty members come from just 12 universities. Thus, the PhD graduates in the other 108 universities must find jobs outside, in other professions. Yet, some 500 new PhD students graduate every year and they go on to find jobs in a range of career paths. He is optimistic about anthropology outside the academy. More attention should be paid to the work being done by these anthropologists outside of academia.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

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Gordon Mathews said that anthropology is doing very well in Hong Kong. It is seen as a place where anthropology can be done more freely than on the Chinese mainland. In a larger sense, he notes that there is still the perception that anthropologists around the world study tribal peoples and they are understood as dying out. The challenge to change the perception of anthropology, showing the public that what it does transcends this. We need a clear definition of anthropology\u2014we don\u2019t have that now.<\/span><\/p>

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Virginia Dominguez said that in the US there is growth in anthropology, but not in sociocultural anthropology, but rather in subfields such as archaeology as well as biological and medical anthropology. She notes that anthropology has always been a weak discipline in the US. There was growth in the late 1960s and 1970s, but anthropologists continue to resent the fact that anthropology is not as important as political science and law, so they don\u2019t promote anthropology as much as they should Anthropologists do not do much to promote what they do.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

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Dorothy Zinn noted that in Italy the situation is perhaps less pessimistic, although precarity has been a problem for decades. Italy has only one fully anthropology PhD program; all the others are in collaboration with other disciplines, and favoring interdisciplinarity. This may be positive. Following the COVID epidemic, there was much funding allocated to Italy to address resistance and recovery, leading to a lot of hiring for anthropologists, in university posts and in research projects, often in interdisciplinary settings. This has strengthened anthropology\u2019s collaboration in science, and also in design; food anthropology and cultural heritage are areas where anthropologists also have a strong presence, as well as in medical anthropology, and applied anthropology. The situation in Italy has traditionally been precarious, so perhaps things look better now only because things have been bad for so long. As for AI, it is hard to say how AI is affecting the Italian academy. Italy has a tradition of oral examinations, which cannot be plagiarized through AI.<\/span><\/p>

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Mugsy Spiegel notes that in South Africa there is high unemployment, 35 to 40%, and so the challenges facing anthropology graduates in finding employment are shared with graduates in a wide variety of disciplines. He also stressed that anthropologists must address the polarisation and related difficulties that are faced globally; we must use our skills to do that. The irony is that the more we contribute by doing that, the more we antagonize those who benefit from and encourage that polarisation.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

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Vesna Vucinic highlighted two major things that we can do., as WCAA and WAU The first is to connect more with global trends, in saving the world. One such initiative is the UN decade of sciences for sustainable development. They seek to create commonality and collaboration between different disciplines including social sciences and humanities. Anthropology should seek to connect with these global associations and coalitions, such as IFC. Also, anthropology should show what we can offer, with our methodology being quite unique. She suggests a project in WAU to show how our on the ground research can help in trying to save the world in this context of working towards a sustainable future. Anthropologist could use local knowledge to show how local communities can with their own resources and traditional methods maintain and even improve agriculture and other fields–this addresses issues of sustainability.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

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Satoshi Tanahashi said that in Japan that is good and bad news. The bad news is that the job market is quite stagnant in Japan. The good news is that JASCA has begun active collaboration with Japanese medical schools with the latter integrating the social sciences in the training of medical doctors. This has meant medical anthropologists being active in medical schools. Also, Japanese entrepreneurs and businesspeople are expressing interest in grounded anthropological research and qualitative research. JASCA set up a special committee to answer the needs of the Japanese business scene. Cooperating with the Ainu Association of Hokkaido, the Japanese Society of Cultural Anthropology apologized to the Ainu people for not taking more of an activist stance. JASCA is working on setting up research ethics guidelines for researching Ainu peoples.\u00a0 Anthropology in Japan is in a process of changing right now to show its presence outside of limited academic fields.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

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Mugsy Speigel in the comments writes that we need a webinar that focuses directly on the question, To what extent is engagement with global institutions of the kind that Vesna is referring to resulting in the discipline making a useful and productive intervention and to what extent is it resulting in the cooptation of anthropology by structures that ultimately serve a global elite?<\/span><\/p>

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Andrea Zhouri agrees that we should have a seminar on anthropology\u2019s engagement with global institutions, bringing in some of our ethnographic experiences as to how these global institutions interact with local communities. She noted that we must define what we mean by \u201csustainable\u201d: there is no single sense of what this term means. In Brazil there has been a burst in students in undergraduate courses in anthropology that were developed some 15 years ago. The challenge is where these students can find work. The academic field is limited, but there is an increase in the market field of anthropology. The professionalization of anthropology is an issue. There is no law governing the discipline and thus you have people calling themselves anthropologists even if they are not. These include those from religious institutions with these individuals working with Indigenous peoples and having a say in development projects. Does anthropology need regulations in who is identified as anthropologists? Anthropologists in Brazil are being attacked by the government for opposing its policies.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

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Gordon:\u00a0 we are going to be holding a symposium on SDGs in Johannesburg next month, and will certainly consider what you\u2019re saying, Andrea.<\/span><\/p>

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Francine: I am writing about what we are facing concerning the issue of human diversity and this is linked to the right wing trend we have seen in recent years.\u00a0 We have to go back to consider what culture means and back to humanism in our discipline. If we do not have core methodologies and values, what, positively, can we offer?<\/span><\/p>

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Virginia: there are still places in the world where anthropologists are focusing on indigenous groups. Ethnographic methods are being taken over by other disciplines. Topics and methodologies are being taking over by other disciplines. We should advocate for what we think anthropology does–Otherwise we could just decide that this is the end of the discipline.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

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Fernando: What we see in Mexico is having less students. We have students who don\u2019t come from anthropological backgrounds; this broadens the field.\u00a0 Anthropologiy in Mexico used to be very tied to the state, with the state using anthropology. This is less the case today, with anthropology engaged more in advocacy in NGOs and with communities. All this is enriching, even though the academic field is very tight. In Mexico, people are forming their own NGOs and companies to engage with anthropology in the private field.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

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Francesca Declich said that one good thing of anthropology is its capacity to be to be critical and deconstructive. This is a good thing but the downside is that anthropologists are sometimes seen as those who always criticize rather than being constructive, especially in applied activities.<\/span><\/p>

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Junji Koizumi said that the Japanese Society for Cultural Anthropology is doing well these days\u2014he encouraged Japanese anthropology to be active in world anthropology. Anthropology and other humanistic disciplines are supported by lots of businesspeople in Japan, and by the government.\u00a0 There are particular problems in Japan, like anthropologists apologizing to the Ainu people, but also broader problems, like how ethnography can be very problematic in how it is used. We need to discuss this.\u00a0 We now are gathering together here as WCAA, but we are WAU\u2014there is a difficult situation between WAU and WCAA: what will their relation be?<\/span><\/p>

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Gordon: The issue is that IUAES and WCAA are fundamentally different kinds of groups\u2014how can we work together within WAU?\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

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Andrea writes in the chat, there is a problem in Brazil of students refusing to read classical anthropology, or anything written by male white anthropologists. We need a special seminar on this, or else what is left for the future?\u00a0 Virginia: It is similar in the US\u2014maybe not as extreme!\u00a0 Andrea: Students are willing to read only works by indigenous women.\u00a0 Mugsy: This has happened is South Africa as well. \u201cCancel culture\u201d may be killing the discipline! Identity politics mean that we create boundaries around ourselves; and that we need to be critical of this because, while at one moment in history, it may be necessary to mobilise around an identity \u2013 e.g. to resist oppression \u2013 there is a strong tendency for those who accept those boundaries for themselves, then to turn on others and oppress them in turn. We see this in Israel today.\u00a0 Anthropologists need to be critical of identity politics.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

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Dorothy ZInn: @Andrea: it is not (yet) an issue in Italy, but it is a big discussion in German anthropology. Last year the German-speaking anthropology institutes did a year-long webinar series to address decoloniality from many points of view. See the boasblogs website: <\/span>https:\/\/boasblogs.org\/decolonizinganthropology<\/span><\/a><\/p>

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Helen spoke on the progress of the Congress in South Africa.<\/span><\/p>

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Antonio: We have to react as anthropologists in a common way in the world\u2014we need to be united\u2026<\/span><\/p>



<\/p>

LIST OF PARTICIPANTS POSITION TO THE WCAA DELEGATES MEETING -16-10-2024<\/span><\/p>

Andr\u00e9a Zhouri – Brazilian Association of Anthropology<\/span>
<\/span>
<\/span>Michel Bouchard – former President of the Canadian Anthropology Society<\/span>
<\/span>
<\/span>Andrew ‘Mugsy’ Spiegel –\u00a0 WCAA Advisory Committee. Cape Town, South Africa<\/span>
<\/span>
<\/span>Mimina Pateraki\u00a0 – Association of Social Anthropologists GREECE (President of Board)<\/span>
<\/span>
<\/span>Silvia HIrsch – Colegio de Graduados en Antropologia, Argentina<\/span>
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<\/span>Dorothy Zinn – Italian Society of Cultural Anthropology<\/span>
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<\/span>Satoshi Tanahashi\u00a0 – President of Japanese Society of Cultural Anthropology<\/span>
<\/span>
<\/span>Antonio Cadierno – IMA-Instituto Madrile\u00f1o de Antropolog\u00eda, AntropoDocs & Films<\/span>
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<\/span>Marisa Ruiz Trejo\u00a0 – representing CEAS (Mexico)<\/span>
<\/span>
<\/span>Soumaya Triki Soumaya – TRIKI, Tunisian Association of Anthropology<\/span><\/p>

Ed Liebow – retired executive director, American Anthropological Association<\/span><\/p>

Vesna Vucinic Vesna Vucinic \u2013 Serbia, former Chair of WVAA<\/span><\/p>

Francesca Declich – Francesca Declich \u2013 Organizing Committee member, WCCA<\/span><\/p>

Fernando Salmeron \u2013 member IUAES Executive Committee<\/span><\/p>

Junji Koizumi \u2013 former President, IUAES, former Chair WCAA<\/span><\/p>

Carmen Rial \u2013 former Chair WCAA<\/span><\/p>

Virginia Dominguez \u2013 Secretary General, IUAES<\/span><\/p>

Bela Feldman-Bianco – Organizing Committee member, WCCA<\/span><\/p>

Gordon Mathews \u2013 Current Chair, WCAA\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

Helen MacDonald \u2013 Treasurer, WCAA, IUAES\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

Francine Saillant — ANTHROPEN<\/span><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

WCAA Delegates\u2019 Meeting\u00a0 October 15, 2024 What is the Future of Anthropology? In attendance: Gordon Mathews, Andrea Zhouri, Antonio Cadierno, Bela Feldman-Bianco, Junji Koizumi, Vesna Vucinic, Andrew \u2018Mugsy\u2019 Spiegel, Dorothy Zinn, Ed Liebow, Fernando Salmeron, Francesca Declich, Gabby Dlamini, Helen Macdonald, Marisa Ruiz Trejo, Satoshi Tanahashi, Silvia Hirsch, Soumaya Triki, Virginia Dominguez, Mimina Pateraki, Francine […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[53],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3622","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-delegates-meeting"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/waunet.org\/wcaa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3622","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/waunet.org\/wcaa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/waunet.org\/wcaa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/waunet.org\/wcaa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/waunet.org\/wcaa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3622"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/waunet.org\/wcaa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3622\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3694,"href":"https:\/\/waunet.org\/wcaa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3622\/revisions\/3694"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/waunet.org\/wcaa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3622"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/waunet.org\/wcaa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3622"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/waunet.org\/wcaa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3622"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}