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Reflections on Action Anthropology .Made In LSlited States 01'. tn~r~cw Reprinted k0m HUMANORGANIL~~~ON Vol. 45. No. 3. Fall 1986 Copyright 9 1986 by the Society for Applied Anthropology Reflections on Action ..lnthropology: Some that neither the search for general knowledge nor the solution Developmental Dynamics of an of practical problems alone is enough. Rather. they form Anthropological Tradition equally important "coordinate goals" (Tax 1953). Thus. dur- ing the Fox Project. Tax and his colleagues sought infor- mation about social and cultural dynamics and about social organization at the same time that they tried to assist in Robert A. Rubmnstein LS Visiting Scholar in the Department of finding solutions to some very practical problems that arose I Anthropology. Northwestern University, Evannon. IL 60201. from the day-to-day interaction of the Mesquakie tribe with Preparation of this paper was supported by National Institute of the neighboring White community of Tama. Iowa (Gearing 4. Mental Health Grants WMH- 16 I36 and WMH- 15589. Preliminary et al. 1960; Gearing 1970, n.d.). versions were presented at the Northwestern University Center for Tax and his colleages took action anthropology to be dif- the Interdisciplinary Study of Science and Technology, Carleton ferent from other forms of applied anthropology. Because of University, the American Anthropological .-Lssociation. the S0ciet.v this. taking the program of action anthropology seriously for Applied Anthropology, and the New York Academy of Sciences. The author wishes to thank Sol Tax for his support for and en- required that they think about many issues fundamental to couragement of this project. Daniel Schienfeld and George Stock- the discipline. ing for tkir helpjkl discussion of this material and for comments A review of the literature related to their approach. infor- on earlier versions of this paper. and David Maines. C. Timothy mation provided to me by Tax during several interviews and McKeown. Roben Rapoport. David Rms. C. Addison Stone, H. discussions over the past three years. and views expressed Stephen Straight, and Oswald Werner for their comments and by some of his former students and colleagues during inter- suggestions. views and in response to a questionnaire that I sent them. suggest that its adherents anticipated that action anthropol- "Action Anthropology" was originally conceived during work with ogy would have a major influence on the development of the Mcsquakie (Fox) Indians in the 1950s by Sol Tax and his students. Despite their enthusiasm and expectations, action an- applied anthropology and general ethnology in the United thropology us they conceived of it has not had a great influence on States (see, e.g., Human Organization 1958; Gearing et al. the discipline. Yet, the epistemological, practical, and methodo- 1960; Ablon 1979). Lurie (1973:4), for example, noted: "It . logical commitments of their approach offer important alterna- may be that what we designate action anthropology is what tives to those accepted by many of the collaborative, advocacy, anthropology as a whole is becoming." and "action" research projects in which anthropologists are in- Yet, in discussions of the nature and scope of applied an- creasingly involved. This paper explores some of the reasons for thropology the Fox Project and action anthropology are fre- action anthropology's lack of influence. Considered arc aspects of quently discussed only superficially. They are often taken as the epistemological and dological climates in which action an- interesting for historical purposes. but dismissed as failures. thropology developed, the reward structure for basic and applied For example, Partridge and Eddy (1 978:37) devote only one scientific research, and the role of personal characteristics in the paragraph of their 48-page survey of the development of leadership and definition of disciplinary traditions. The conclmion of the analysis is that "action anthropology" still has much to offer applied anthropology to the Fox Project, and mention action attempts to better understand how anthropology can be made anthropology not at all. Foster (1 962, 1969) mentions it not useful and relevant to policy-makm. at all or in passing, dismissing action anthropology as an attractive but flawed approach. Action anthropology receives Key words action anthropology, applied anthropology, leader- no mention in Goldschmidt's (1 979) collection of papers on ship. Sol Tax The Uses of Anthropology, or in Arensberg's and Niehofl's (1 964) Introducing Social Change. Goodenough (1 963:44- And the end of all our exploring 46) notes, but does not explore. the important action an- will be to arrive where we smed thropological commitment to people's having "the freedom And how the place for the kttime -T. S. Eliot to make mistakes." Van Willigen (1 986) is a recent exception. Little Gidding Indeed. when anthropological work in the United States. especially in applied settings. is examined. it seems that ac- In 1952 Sol Tax described an approach to anthropology. tion anthropology as described by Tax and his colleagues has and especially to its application in some practical settings, had relatively little impact. My main goal in this paper is to that he called "action anthropology." This approach resulted better understand the reasons for this relative lack of influ- from the work of Tax and his students, especially from work ence of action anthropology, specifically as described by Tax they camed out between 1948 and 1959 among the Mes- and his colleagues. quakie Indians (also known as the Fox). This work came to I approach this goal by considering two questions: (I) 'Why be called the "Fox Project." This group invested much time did relatively few anthropologists working outside of the ac- and effort in the Fox Project and in other action anthropology tion anthropology tradition take up the approach?, and (2) programs. and. for a time, it was discussed in the anthro- Why did the original group ofaction anthropologistsnot form pological literature (see, e.g., Ablon 1962; Blanchard 1979: the core of a coherent tradition within anthropology? Borman 1979; Gearing 1970; Gearing et al. 1960; Lurie 1973; To answer the first question, the relations of action an- Peattie 1968; Schlesier 1974; Tax 1952. 1956). thropology to anthropology in general, and to applied an- Tax used the label "action anthropology" to describe a thropology in particular, are reviewed. Three aspects of these process during which both general social science inquiry is relations are examined: (1) the nature and role of theory carried out and practical help toward resolving a group's day- building in basic. applied and action anthropology; (2) the to-&y problems is given. The action anthropologist holds nature of accountability in anthropological work; and (3) the nature of the understanding of science which formed the that action anthropologists use theoretical tools in their work context in which action anthropology emerged and was eval- in practical settings. or that work on practical problems offers uated. a context in which basic theory can be tested. To answer the second question I examine some of the social Yet Tax reports that his view was, and remains, that in and personal factors that affect the growth of traditions within the normal process of the development of theoretical an- scientific disciplines as these relate to action anthropology. thropology, work on practical problems presents an oppor- Among these are: (I) the role of personal characteristics in tunity for the development of new, more powerful theory. the leadership and definition of scientific traditions, and (2) Work on practical problems is likely to give us a chance to the importance for the development of traditions of access develop areas of theory that might not easily be explored in to the usual reward structure for work in a discipline. other contexts. These areas are nonetheless important and The result of this work can be briefly characterized. I think sometimes even central to the elaboration of theory that has that the epistemological objections that have been raised been or could be developed in other contexts. against action anthropology are ill-founded. Furthermore. The ethical notion has two components. First, anthtopol- the sociological constraints on the development of scientific ogists have an obligation to people with whom they work disciplines, together with the personal di5culties involved such that our work ought to be imminently useful to them. in doing action anthropology, made its development as a Second, we should not make decisions for the people we work coherent tradition extremely difficult. I conclude from this with. He argues that anthropologists should "not use people analysis that action anthropology still has much to offer to for an end not related to their own welfare [and] not only our attempts to better understand how anthropology can be should we [anthropologists] not hurt people, we should not made useful and relevant to policy-makers and to our society use them for our own ends" (Tax 1952: 104). Anthropologists in general. Fmally, our definitions of success in anthropology should not dedide that a group should take some course of may be radically altered by reflecting upon the experience of action that they themselves do not desire. Further, where action anthropology. anthropologists have authority. this is also an injunction against their irnplementinp'ch contrary decisions. It follows from these ethical notions that while an anthro- Action Anthropology Briefly Characterized pologist can work with ihemben of a community toward goals they express, the anthropologist ought not to direct that Although there are a number of anthropologists who refer work. In the paper that outlines the philosophical founda- to some or all of their work as action anthropology. I em- tions of action anthropology, Tax (1956:175) argues that, phasize that the approach about which I am concerned is "Whether or not the community turns out to have chosen a just that work which conforms to the general outlines adhered wise course of action is quite beside the point.
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