Public anthropology in practice By Prof. Abhijit Guha BACKGROUND A.L. Kroeber (1876-1960) in his essay Eighteen Professions published in the American Anthropologist in 1915 began with two interesting paragraphs. I quote: Anthropology today includes two studies which fundamental differences of aim and method render irreconcilable. One of those branches is biological and psychological; the other, social or historical (Kroeber 1915). The second paragraph starts with a more interesting sentence, which runs as follows: There is a third field, the special province of anthropology, concerned with the relation of biological and social factors. This is no-man’s land, and therefore used as a picnic-ground by whosoever prefers pleasure excursions to the work of cultivating a patch of understanding. Some day this tract will also be surveyed, fenced and improved (Ibid). Yes, Kroeber was right and he came ...
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