Annals of Anthropological Practice最新文献

The relationship between decolonization and anthropology is one that has been discussed at length within the discipline since the 1960s. The question of how, and indeed if, we decolonize anthropology remains a contested topic, even as the label “decolonizing” falls out of vogue due to mis/overuse. I argue that community-based participatory research (CBPR) offers an avenue for scholars to apply many of the principles of decolonizing anthropology in their own research, putting theory into practice by redistributing knowledge, power, and ownership within the study process. I use my fieldwork experience at REACH, an Indigenous-serving school in the Southwest US, to share some of the practices utilized by our research team that may be duplicated by other community-scholar collaborations and reflect on CBPR's limitations as a decolonizing praxis in anthropological ethnographic environments.

We discuss a multi-year partnership between Centre College and the Danville-Boyle County African American Historical Society (DBCAAHS) that focused on training students to execute and archive semi-structured oral history interviews with members of the local Black community who experienced Danville's urban renewal and school integration period. The project culminated with a large-scale public history exhibition and an archival website. Pedagogically, the project successfully made visible local manifestations of structural racism, both to Centre students and the community. We argue that this project demonstrates a successful fusion of Participatory Action Research (PAR) with ethnographic methods from cultural anthropology. In carrying out this project within several college courses, we further show that tying principles of PAR to ethnographic methods reconciles some of the historical tensions that applied anthropology has had with the community-engaged learning model in higher education. We continue implementing PAR in this article by analyzing debrief interviews with both research participants and students, whose inferences and feedback demonstrate the current outcomes and inform the future shape of the project.

Sister Inez Hilger was a singular figure in twentieth-century American anthropology, a habit-wearing Benedictine nun who conducted fieldwork among Native North American tribes and Indigenous communities abroad. While outwardly conservative, S. Inez was resolutely modern in her commitment to bringing anthropological knowledge to bear on discussions of policy and practice outside the academy. In a sense, S. Inez had no choice but to focus on the application of anthropological knowledge to “social problems”: she never held an academic position in anthropology, but taught mainly in schools of nursing, where the onus was on her to demonstrate the relevance and value of her subjects—anthropology, sociology, and psychology—to the settings and people her future nurses were likely to encounter “in the field.” In this article, based on extensive archival research, I develop an account of S. Inez's groundbreaking efforts to apply anthropology in non-academic settings, beginning with her earliest publications for nurses. I chart the growth of her political conscience following World War II and report on her participation in state and federal-level discussions on “social problems” among American Indians, reconstructing her involvement in two significant conferences (in 1953 and 1964). I also consider evidence of her wider-ranging political advocacy for Native peoples, including her role as an expert consultant for a US Senate subcommittee (in 1961). A consideration of S. Inez's publications and activities over the long term reveals that she moved from methodological individualism to a greater preoccupation with structural factors underlying the symptoms of social dysfunction among Native peoples.

Food insecurity (FI), a longstanding issue in the United States, has been associated with poor diet quality and negative health outcomes, especially with diet-related chronic diseases (DRCDs). To address this issue, Food Prescription Programs (FPP, also known as Food as Medicine) provide at-risk populations with vouchers, or “prescriptions,” to obtain fresh fruits and vegetables from local food banks, pantries, and vendors. This paper discusses the evaluation of a FPP (Food Rx) at a community health clinic serving poor and underserved populations during the COVID-19 pandemic. Findings from qualitative interviews suggest that patients participating in Food Rx felt that the program improved their FI status and diet quality, assisted in the management of their DRCDs, and helped connect them to other resources available at the clinic and within their community. These findings suggest that FPP may have potential benefits when addressing FI and DRCDs from the perspective of program users.

In modern market societies, the state has strong incentives to regulate informal economic activities, particularly when they become highly visible or challenge state-sanctioned markets. However, informality persists not merely as a regulatory failure but as a negotiated economic space where both the state and entrepreneurs pursue strategic interests. This article examines Chinese informal entrepreneurship in Morocco's tourism sector, revealing how migrant entrepreneurs, Moroccan tourism professionals, and state authorities interact to sustain a transnational tourism market despite regulatory constraints. Drawing on 18 months of ethnographic fieldwork, including participant observation and interviews with Chinese entrepreneurs and Moroccan stakeholders, this study critically engages Clifford Geertz's “prince-peddler” framework, extending it to a digital and transnational economy. It argues that Moroccan authorities practice selective enforcement, balancing economic pragmatism with regulatory ambiguity, while Chinese entrepreneurs leverage digital infrastructures to navigate informality strategically. This research contributes to the anthropology of entrepreneurship by illustrating how informal entrepreneurship is not merely a survival strategy but a deliberate business model shaped by digital platforms, transnational financial networks, and negotiated governance. Although this niche market of Chinese tourists in Morocco remains resilient, emerging regulatory pressures suggest that a shift toward formalization is already underway.

Much has been written in the way of praxis and theory in anthropology on how scholars can better take part in addressing contemporary sociocultural issues of many marginalized communities created by colonialism, patriarchy, heterosexism, and imperialism. This work addresses the boycott of the 2024 annual AAA meeting in Tampa, Florida, and centers key debates and activism that motivated this call in protest of anti-trans, anti-Critical Race Theory, and anti-abortion legislation. Supporters of the boycott claimed that the AAA's decision to move forward with its meeting location was a “profound error” and that relocation would have been a productive act of resistance by the AAA. But, for who? Which anthropologists and community members were the boycott of the AAA conference for? Critically analyzing the contexts of these arguments in an interrogation of power, privilege, and identity within anthropological theory and praxis, I argue that this boycott, like many other summative acts in Anthropology, failed to consider its full impact and was called for groups it did not fully represent. I show how these issues are nuanced by considering those most impacted by them.

In 2023, Florida Senate Bill (SB) 1718 was covered by national newspapers, as the issue of immigration enforcement was a key issue during the presidential campaign. Examining SB 1718 through the lens of crimmigration, or how immigration law and criminal matters increasingly converge and overlap, reveals that such laws aim to criminalize undocumented immigrants. Media framing shapes public perceptions about immigrants’ perceived otherness, and these perceptions are leveraged by some politicians to strategically use the issue of immigration as a talking point or political campaign issue. A ProQuest newspaper article search was used to identify articles with the search terms “Florida,” “immigration,” and “law” and the date range of June 1 to August 16, 2023. A text-driven newspaper analysis of word frequencies and a thematic analysis of media framing were used to identify arguments supporting or opposing the law. The thematic analysis used a deductive approach to coding based on a prior codebook. The article search generated 36 relevant newspaper articles relevant to the Florida immigration law. The law spurred opposition from businesses in the agriculture, construction, and tourism sectors for exacerbating an already tight labor market. Political supporters of the law argued that it protected borders, created a legal workforce, and saved taxpayer money. This research identifies media argument framings and compares these arguments with media coverage over a decade ago when similar laws were passed in Arizona and Georgia to critically examine the evolution of these types of laws through the lens of crimmigration.

During the economic crisis of the 1990s in Cuba, self-employment was gradually and begrudgingly decriminalized, referred to by state leaders as “a necessary evil” in a “Socialist island adrift in the sea of Capitalism.” However, it continued to be stigmatized as antisocial and morally suspect, diverting labor and innovation away from the Revolution, a state-led social project for the benefit of all, toward individual wealth accumulation. By the end of the first decade of the 2000s, official state discourses changed. New discourses celebrated independent economic actors as the key to sustainable development and future Socialist prosperity; self-employment was reenvisioned as vital to the nation's economic health. I argue that the apparent transformation in the state and Revolution's acceptance of Cuban entrepreneurs is actually incomplete. While some forms of independent economic activity and new economic actors are now celebrated and defended by the state, the mobility and dignified life promised by entrepreneurship are not open to all who undertake creative solutions to unmet social needs.

This article examines the trajectory and legacy of an undergraduate field school in the smallest Anglophone country in West Africa, The Gambia. Over a period of twenty-three years, an international summer anthropology course evolved from a study tour, to a field school, to a year-round international exchange program that involved hundreds of students, faculty and staff from institutions in the United States, The Gambia, and for several years, even Thailand. In 2016 the College administration decided to close what had come to be known as the PEACE (Promoting Educational and Cultural Exchange) program in The Gambia, West Africa. The article provides an example of the advantages anthropologists have in the design and delivery of international field schools and programs. This case study illustrates that international programs generate both intended and unintended results or impacts at the individual, community, and institutional levels. The collaborative approach used in The Gambia generated mutual benefits among participants and institutional stakeholders, but the relatively abrupt program closure created significant challenges for host country program staff. Today, the legacy of the PEACE program can be seen in the actions of previous participants and the spirit of their own projects or programs in The Gambia.