Wenner-Gren receives applications from anthropologists based in nearly every country in the world, and we have reviewers from every continent except Antarctica. This forum will prove particularly helpful to anthropologists who want to do better work-which should be all of us-particularly if they are considering applying for one of our awards. To envision new, more equitable futures, we need to reckon with a diversity of pasts. Scholars outside North American and Europe are no longer willing to be treated as if they are expert informants. They, and others, have been critiquing their discipline for decades, yet hierarchies of power and privilege remain. Brazilian and Mexican anthropologists, like anthropologists of color in the U.S., have been working to decolonize the discipline since at least the 1960s. For anthropologists trained elsewhere, it felt both familiar and fraught. Finally, it seemed like new voices were being heard.įor anthropologists trained in the U.S., the moment felt transformative. Black and Indigenous anthropologists took the lead in these conversations, which quickly spread across departments and professional associations. A call went out to let anthropology burn so a new, better variety of scholarship could take root. With George Floyd’s murder, it felt even more urgent to challenge business as usual. Suddenly, we weren’t simply asking what research was possible, but why it was worth doing. In the U.S., anthropologists of my generation came of age assuming we could go anywhere and talk to anyone. Covid-19 was casting new light on realities that have long been abundantly clear to scholars based outside anthropology’s hegemonic centers. In 2020, Gustavo Lins Ribeiro approached us with the idea of organizing a series of conversations with anthropologists from around the world on the past and future of our discipline. As anyone who has gotten lost in the mountains can attest, trails that seem to be leading in the same direction don’t always end up in the same place. As anyone who has hiked in the mountains can tell you, different paths can lead to the same destination.
0 kommentar(er)
