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Taking the conflict over the remains of Ned Kelly as a starting point, in this article I trace the various conceptions of the, body as evidence within the intertwined histories of anthropology, criminology, and medicine to explore how anthropological practice brings the dead into being through exhumation and analysis. I outline the popular rhetorical tropes within which evidentiary claims are situated, exploring how the agency of people after death is understood within the framework of present-day forensic anthropological practice and how this is underwritten by a particular heritage of anatomical analysis. [Keywords: archaeology, forensic anthropology, materiality, semiotics of the body] [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Growing concerns about anthropology's impact in both academia and the broader social arena have led to calls for more ‘public’ and more relevant anthropology. In this article, we expand on these exhortations, by calling for systematic joining of critical social theory with application and pragmatic engagement with contemporary problems. We argue for the repositioning of applied anthropology as a vital component of the broader discipline and suggest that it should serve as a framework for constructing a more engaged anthropology. In revisiting disciplinary history and critiques of applied anthropology, we demonstrate the central role that application has played throughout anthropology's evolution, address common misconceptions that serve as barriers to disciplinary integration, examine the role of advocacy in relation to greater engagement as well as the relationship of theory to practice, and conclude with an assessment of the diverse work that is subsumed under the inclusive rubric of ‘anthropology in use.’ [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Initially given as the Presidential Address at the 100th Meeting of the AAA, this article examines the contributions of women and minority anthropologists who have struggled to gain a place at the center of the discipline. Despite 25 years of scholarship on women and minorities, anthropology needs to go further in terms of paying attention to their pioneering efforts and the breadth of their scholarship. The article explores four currently important areas of creativity: (1) the transformation of field research through problem-oriented participant observation and "native anthropology," as exemplified by George Hunt, the young Margaret Mead, and Delmos Jones; (2) the evolution of more dialogical forms of ethnographic writing, as pursued by Elsie dews Parsons, Gladys Reichard, Ella Deloria, and Zora Neale Hurston; (3) sources of critique, as embodied in the work of Ruth Benedict and Michelle Rosaldo; and (4) forms of activism, engaged in by Anita McGee, Benedict, Mead, and Alfonzo Ortiz. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Provides a personal account on the history of anthropology. Anthropologist Franz Boas' influence; Anthropology and national character; Ecology and cultural evolution; Anthropology & sociology; Emergence of anti-establishment anthropology; Transition from physical anthropology to biological anthropology; Language and the symbolic world of human existence.

North American anthropology had an earlier interest in studies of the United States and in critical approaches than is often recognized. Such interests were pursued before World War II but were set aside during the war and in anthropology's postwar expansion. This perspective on anthropological history was inspired by the work of Hortense Powdermaker, specifically the disjunction between her 1930s research in segregated Mississippi and her pioneering study of Hollywood in the late 1940s. Reexamining that study highlights the theoretical framework that led to omissions in her account of Hollywood, while her explanation of movie content invites a more diachronic approach. Parallels between the history of the movies and that of cultural anthropology from the 1930s through the 1960s suggest how both were shaped by the Depression, World War II, and the Cold War. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]