Making anthropology make sense

Anthropology is on the edge of a new turn.

This is a discipline which renews itself every 20 years or so by creating new paradigms.

It formed on the sharp edge of colonialism as 'explorers' that accompanied exploiters and missionaries into territories argued for the 'savages' as they were called then. Anthropologists, as they became, spent time alongside people in colonial areas, getting to know their customs and practices. They then argued with the colonials, asserting that these people were not savages but communities with their own way of understanding the world.

Anthropologists were so successful with their argument that, to their horror, colonial subjugators used the insights generated to further infiltrate and split up the communities. Tribe 'leaders' were identified and negotiated with, land 'bought' from them and the bill of sale used as validation for further control and devastation.

In the early 20th century, anthropological research into the different physical characteristics of ethnic groups (including white) was used by others again to reinforce racial stereotyping and to substantiate eugenics. Again, the curiosity and arguments of anthropologists interested in the nuance of difference were exploited and misused by others.

Anthropology retreated further into a community of people who talked largely to each other in relatively obscure language, protection perhaps from the misuse of their research insights.

As the century progressed, anthropologists fanned out across the world taking in all the continents, Africa, Australiasia, Asia, South America, North America and Europe, exploring the rich and diverse cultural differences in communities.

In the 1970s, a new turn was stimulated by feminist scholars who challenged ethnographic accounts which represented 'communities' as having particular rituals or practices. They argued for distinguishing by gender - anthropologists were largely men at the time and these men spent most of their time with other men in tribal communities. So their insights were not borne from 'the community' but from the men in that community.

A new era of anthropological research led to much closer attention to power dynamics in communities and how gender impacted upon these insights (both of the researcher and the researched). This approach stimulated a stronger sense of 'reflexivity' - understanding who you are in the picture as well as what you see.

The reflexive turn was further embedded when attention turned to the anthropologists' mode of communication itself. The way the research was written up, the language used, the style, the nature of quoting or representation, the situation and circumstances of the researcher themselves - these all needed to be accounted for and considered as part of the analytical process.

Meanwhile the ongoing onslaught of capitalist totalitarianism which embedded itself deeper and wider across the world, led to the rapid transformation of many traditional ways of living. Anthropologists whose geographical site of research would endure over decades bore witness to these transformations and could not help but be saddened by the subjugation of independent and differently thinking communities into wage labour.

Some anthropologists advocated for 'activism' using their knowledge, insight and privileged access to both indigenous communities and Western centres of power. However many were concerned by misuse of their insights, mindful of how early anthropologists had inadvertently aided the colonial project. Many anthropologists informally support the people they spend time with and advocate in particular spaces, when requested. In Australia, anthropologists were particularly helpful in supporting indigenous land claims which have led to substantial areas of the country owned by Australian aboriginal communities.

The new anthropological turn sees anthropologists arguing for the rights of non-human species. This is a largely political project borne partly from the frustration of arguing for the rights on non-Western communities. Arguments such as 'mushrooms have social lives' (Tsing) can be usefully situated as a metaphorical position. What if mushrooms have a social life - would this affect their consumption, their treatment?

This new turn takes the argument about whether some people's lives should be respected over others to another level. By focusing on the issue at a species level, it allows for an abstraction which may facilitate and refresh over 100 years of arguing for respect of the other.

Here's hoping.