In one discipline after another, leftist ideas about “diversity” have undermined the academic search for truth. Scholars put their careers at risk if they ask questions that the woke have deemed “insensitive.” That is the case in anthropology, and in today’s Martin Center article, Professor Elizabeth Weiss explains what has happened to her field.
She writes:
For all these reasons, anthropology is exceedingly important, but it has fallen into disrepute. Today, anthropologists have abandoned their desire to understand others, and identity-politics activists have hijacked the field. This can be clearly seen in the many identify groups, which I call “neo-tribes,” present in anthropological associations, such as the American Anthropological Association, the Society for American Archaeology, and the American Association for Biological Anthropology. Consider, for example, the following, all of which are now present in the discipline:
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Women in Archaeology Interest Group
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Biological Anthropology Women’s Mentoring Network
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Association for Queer Anthropology
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Queer Archaeology Interest Group
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Association of Latina/o and Latinx Anthropologists
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Association of Indigenous Anthropologists
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Association of Black Anthropologists
Weiss reports that her research has been subject to cancellation on several occasions because those groups don’t like her conclusions.
“Neo-tribes are activist organizations,” she continues, “using anthropology to push their political agenda rather than to understand the past or others. This couldn’t be made clearer than it has been in recent job ads, such as one from Albion College. For a visiting professor of biological anthropology, Albion College seeks a person who ‘will actively promote diversity, belonging and equity in all of their interactions with others on campus, especially historically marginalized students, faculty, and staff (e.g., those who are first-generation, low-income, undocumented and DACA, LGBTQIA , BIPOC, [or] religious minorities).’”
In other words, fealty to leftism comes first, scholarship second.