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Engaged Anthropology: Diversity and Dilemmas Current Anthropology Volume 51 Supplement 2 October 2010 Engaged Anthropology: Diversity and Dilemmas Leslie C. Aiello Engaged Anthropology: Diversity and Dilemmas: Wenner-Gren Symposium Supplement 2 S201 Setha M. Low and Sally Engle Merry Engaged Anthropology: Diversity and Dilemmas: An Introduction to Supplement 2 S203 Ida Susser The Anthropologist as Social Critic: Working toward a More Engaged Anthropology S227 Barbara Rose Johnston Social Responsibility and the Anthropological Citizen S235 Norma Gonza´lez Advocacy Anthropology and Education: Working through the Binaries S249 Michael Herzfeld Engagement, Gentrification, and the Neoliberal Hijacking of History S259 Signe Howell Norwegian Academic Anthropologists in Public Spaces S269 John L. Jackson Jr. On Ethnographic Sincerity S279 Jonathan Spencer The Perils of Engagement: A Space for Anthropology in the Age of Security? S289 Kamari M. Clarke Toward a Critically Engaged Ethnographic Practice S301 Kamran Asdar Ali Voicing Difference: Gender and Civic Engagement among Karachi’s Poor S313 Alan Smart Tactful Criticism in Hong Kong: The Colonial Past and Engaging with the Present S321 http://www.journals.uchicago.edu/CA Current Anthropology Volume 51, Supplement 2, October 2010 S201 Engaged Anthropology: Diversity and Dilemmas Wenner-Gren Symposium Supplement 2 by Leslie C. Aiello Engaged Anthropology: Diversity and Dilemmas grew out of a tiative on environmental issues involving 70 international and Wenner-Gren-sponsored workshop titled “The Anthropolo- interdisciplinary scholars who were selected for their common gist as Social Critic: Working toward a More Engaged An- interest and curiosity about the human impact on the earth. thropology” held at the foundation headquarters in New York Among many other Wenner-Gren meetings dealing with City, January 22–25, 2008 (fig. 1). The workshop was orga- various aspects of engaged anthropology are the following: nized by Setha M. Low (Graduate Center, City University of The Teaching of Anthropology (Mandelbaum, Lasker, and Al- New York) and Sally Engle Merry (New York University). Both bert 1963); Indigenous Anthropology in Non-Western Countries Low and Merry have had long-term interests in engaged an- (Fahim 1982); The Sex Division of Labor, Development, and thropology, and this was one of the leading themes of Low’s Women’s Status (Leacock and Safa 1986; Safa and Leacock presidency of the American Anthropological Association 1981); The Time of AIDS: Social Analysis, Theory, and Method (2007–2009). The Wenner-Gren-sponsored meeting led to an (Herdt and Lindenbaum 1992); Embedding Ethics (Meskell AAA Presidential Symposium of the same title held at the and Pels 2005); and Corporate Lives: New Perspectives on the 107th annual meeting in November 2008. The overall theme Social Life of the Corporate Form (Partridge, Welker, and Har- of the AAA meetings that year was “Inclusion, Collaboration, din, forthcoming). and Engagement.” Following the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, Rich- The major focus of Low and Merry’s Wenner-Gren work- ard Fox, the Wenner-Gren president at that time, organized shop, subsequent AAA Presidential Symposium, and current three meetings on issues of public concern. “Suffering and supplementary CA issue is the history and nature of engaged Recovery,” held September 17–20, 2002, focused on issues of anthropology, its expansion and growth in the United States human wounding and suffering, as well as healing and rec- and abroad, and the dilemmas it raises. Low and Merry stress onciliation. “Heritage and Politics,” held May 9–12, 2003, that the major contribution of this volume is to illustrate the aimed to evaluate anthropology’s capacity through basic re- breadth of forms of engagement. In their words, this extends search to make important interventions in public issues “from basic commitment to our informants, to sharing and through a specific focus on heritage. “Anthropology Put to support with the communities with which we work, to teach- Work/Anthropology That Works?” held May 19–22, 2005, fo- ing and public education, to social critique in academic and cused on the ways in which global forces, structural changes public forums, to more commonly understood forms of en- in academia and in the labor market, and the desire of an- gagement such as collaboration, advocacy, and activism” (Low thropologists to engage in the world have led to a transfor- and Merry 2010, in this issue). Among the dilemmas that mation in the discipline (Field and Fox 2007). Fox hoped to remain unresolved are the ethics of intervention, the appro- clarify the actual ways the discipline was contributing and priateness of critique given the anthropologist’s position, and adapting to global realities and demonstrate how younger the hazards of working with powerful government and mil- scholars were already putting anthropology to work. itary organizations. One of the most recent Wenner-Gren Foundation programs Engagement has been a continuing interest of the Wenner- in the area of engaged anthropology is the Osmundsen Ini- Gren Foundation. One of the first meetings organized by the tiative supplement. This funding program provides additional foundation was Man’s Role in Changing the Face of the Earth financial support to Wenner-Gren grantees who demonstrate (Thomas 1956). This was a pioneering anthropological ini- the engagement of their research with broader social or in- tellectual issues and how their work exhibits the unique per- Leslie C. Aiello is President of the Wenner-Gren Foundation for spective anthropology brings to understanding contemporary Anthropological Research (470 Park Avenue South, 8th Floor North, concerns. New York, New York 10016, U.S.A.). Information about the Wenner-Gren Foundation, the Sym- ᭧ 2010 by The Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research. All rights reserved. 0011-3204/2010/510S2-0001$10.00. DOI: 10.1086/656340 S202 Current Anthropology Volume 51, Supplement 2, October 2010 Figure 1. Participants in the symposium “The Anthropologist as Social Critic: Working toward a More Engaged Anthropology.” Seated from left: Kit Davis, Sally Merry, Setha Low, Ida Susser, Norma Gonza´lez. Standing from left: Barbara Rose Johnston, Victoria Malkin, Jonathan Spencer, John Jackson, Merrill Singer, Martha Lincoln, Alan Smart, Helen Siu, Signe Howell, Marı´a Teresa Sierra, Kamran Ali, Michael Herzfeld, Leslie Aiello. Not pictured: Kamari Clarke. posium and Workshop program, and the Osmundsen Initia- velopment and division of labor by gender. South Hadley, MA: Ber- tive can be found on the foundation’s Web site (http:// gin & Garvey. www.wennergren.org/). The foundation is always looking for Low, Setha M., and Sally Engle Merry. 2010. Engaged anthropology: diversity and dilemmas: an introduction to supplement 2. Current innovative symposium topics and encourages anthropologists Anthropology 51(S2):S203–S226. to contact the foundation with their ideas for future Wenner- Mandelbaum, David G., Gabriel W. Lasker, and Ethel M. Albert, eds. Gren-sponsored and Wenner-Gren-organized meetings. 1963. The teaching of anthropology. Berkeley: University of Cali- fornia Press. Meskell, Lynn, and Peter Pels, eds. 2005. Embedding ethics. Oxford: Berg. Partridge, Damani J., Marina Welker, and Rebecca Hardin, eds. Forthcoming. Corporate lives: new perspectives on the social life References Cited of the corporate form. Current Anthropology supplement issue. Fahim, Hussein M., ed. 1982. Indigenous anthropology in non-Western Safa, Helen I., and Eleanor Leacock, eds. 1981. Development and the countries. Durham, NC: Carolina Academic Press. sexual division of labor. Special issue, Journal of Women in Culture Field, Les, and Richard Fox, eds. 2007. Anthropology put to work. and Society 7(2):265–512. Oxford: Berg. Thomas, William L., ed. 1956. Man’s role in changing the face of the Herdt, Gilbert, and Shirley Lindenbaum, eds. 1992. The time of AIDS: earth. Chicago: University of Chicago Press for the Wenner-Gren social analysis, theory, and method. Newbury Park, CA: Sage. Foundation for Anthropological Research and the National Science Leacock, Eleanor, and Helen I. Safa, eds. 1986. Women’s work: de- Foundation. Current Anthropology Volume 51, Supplement 2, October 2010 S203 Engaged Anthropology: Diversity and Dilemmas An Introduction to Supplement 2 by Setha M. Low and Sally Engle Merry As a discipline, anthropology has increased its public visibility in recent years with its growing focus on engagement. Although the call for engagement has elicited responses in all subfields and around the world, this special issue focuses on engaged anthropology and the dilemmas it raises in U.S. cultural and practicing anthropology. Within this field, the authors distinguish a number of forms of engagement: (1) sharing and support, (2) teaching and public education, (3) social critique, (4) collaboration, (5) advocacy, and (6) activism. They show that engagement takes place during field- work; through applied practice; in institutions such as Cultural Survival, the Institute for Community Research, and the Hispanic Health Council; and as individual activists work in the context of war, terrorism, environmental injustice, human rights, and violence. A close examination of the history of engaged anthropology in the United States also reveals an enduring set of dilemmas, many of which persist in contemporary anthropological practice. These dilemmas were raised by the anthro- pologists who attended the Wenner-Gren workshop titled “The Anthropologist
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