This two-part panel examines complex and contingent forms of political efficacy enacted by marginalized groups and individuals and investigates the theoretical frameworks within which such activities may be effectively analyzed. What we might call articulations of authority, autonomy, or sovereignty can take many forms, from behaviors James Scott once called “weapons of the weak” to the “spirit of resistance” that Jean Comaroff found on the margins of the South African state. Anthropology’s preoccupation with resistance began in the 1970s as an interdependent foil to its keen interest in power and domination, which arose alongside the global consolidation of neoliberalism as a policy and ideology of accumulation for the few through dispossession of the many. Anthropologists were in good company at this moment, as the influence of Foucault, Marxist frameworks, and postcolonial theory grew across the social sciences in the shadow of neoliberalism, bringing new, dark social realities into focus. Feminist scholars in particular examined gendered negotiations of power as a factor of public and private spheres, divisions of labor and complex cultural histories (for example, Rosaldo and Lamphere 1974). A proliferation of compelling ethnographic accounts of counter-hegemonic practices and the dawn of activist anthropology lightened the burden of what Sherry Ortner (2016) would later label the “dark” turn, as anthropologists focused increasingly on questions of inequity, injustice and neo-colonial subjugation. By the 1990s, backlash grew against overuse of “resistance”; Saba Mahmood and Lila Abu-Lughod among others pointed to the historical contingency of the desire for individual freedom that popular and scholarly discourses of the global north might misguidedly universalize. Nonetheless, anthropology’s interest in oppositional articulations of power endures, whether labeled ethnographic refusal, abolitionist anthropology, or the horizon of radical humanism (Simpson 2014; Jobson 2019; Shange 2020). Here we unite diverse perspectives to consider the tactics employed by structurally subjugated persons to (re)orient themselves within and/or against broader, hegemonic political and economic institutions. We also, however, question the liberal notion of the universal, coherent, and stable human subject. Our goal is to highlight the complex ways persons and groups who are subordinated in some contexts exert authority and negotiate circumstances in others. With papers from around the world on topics ranging from art, laughter and healing to resettlement, caste inequity, rural marginalization and reproductive rights and technologies, we interrogate the way anthropologists depict “resistance” with unfavorable odds by thinking beyond individual subjectivity and linear temporality, bringing multiple accretions of power and intersecting affective circulations into the conversation.

Opting out as refusal: women engaging and refusing reproductive technologies over time

Anthropology Beyond Resistance, Part 1

technical paper

Truth and Responsibility
“Truth and Responsibility” is a call to reimagine anthropology to meet the demands of the present moment. The imperative to bear witness, take action, and be held accountable to the truths we write and circulate invites us to reflect on our responsibility in reckoning with disciplinary histories, harms, and possibilities. To whom are we giving evidence and toward what ends? For whom are we writing? To whom are we accountable, and in what ways? We are thrilled to announce the theme of the 2021 AAA Annual Meeting to be held in Baltimore, MD: Truth and Responsibility.

Many consider anthropology to be a holistic social science dedicated to cross-cultural understanding as a way to reduce bigotry and more fully comprehend “what it means to be human.” Others push against this readily circulated origin story, arguing that “human” remains a highly contested, political category—evident as the presumed set of rights and protections associated with the “human” continue to be stripped away violently in the communities in which some of us live and work. Which violent histories and epistemologies must anthropologists take responsibility for in telling truth(s) about the discipline’s development? How do the dual histories of settler colonialism and slavery continue to influence anthropological thought and practices? In these political times, how can anthropologists throughout the globe work to secure a capacious, progressive vision of the human? How might movements for anti-racism, decoloniality, queer liberation, and healing such as #BlackLivesMatter, #ProtectMaunaKea, and #MeToo push a future anthropology out of the ashes of the anthropological past? Finally, what are the limits and possibilities of the anthropological imagination?

Across subfields, we find truths in patterns of human behavior, language, evolution, and cultural worlds. Industry-positioned anthropologists do this by extending the boundaries of the discipline not as an administrative solution to job shortages but as a source of intervention and knowledge production. Increasingly, anthropologists who make use of the scientific method question how status and identity help to decide which facts come to represent truth. How might quantitative researchers use our methods to identify patterned truths, and what responsibility do we hold in challenging conventional wisdom about these patterns? What responsibility do we have to both our colleagues and larger publics, to push toward increased transparency and ethical grounding in our data collection, analysis, and presentation?

Pedagogy is a key medium for the communication of anthropological truths. Which (and whose) truths are foregrounded in our curricula? What are the possibilities for a liberatory pedagogy in a precarious, “post-truth” era? Conferences, museums, organizing spaces, and classrooms are sites where pedagogy and various forms of communication can help us interrogate the performativity of truth. How might anthropologists conceive of truth performances? Might visual, aural, and choreographic performances during AAA sessions offer anthropologists alternative genres for truth-telling and truth-making that provoke discussions about responsibility?

In accordance with the urgency of the year’s theme, the questions posed in this call for papers do not have easy answers. The hope is that those who submit proposals will take up these questions and engage in collective thinking and imagining about the truths we hold, the truths we challenge, and the responsibilities we bear in co-creating a free and more equitable world. All panel proposals should have a statement about how the panel has incorporated the goals of equity, diversity, and inclusion, and/or analysis of power.

Executive Session proposals have already been selected and speak directly to the theme “Truth and Responsibility.” To practice the critical reflexivity this call for papers invites, we asked that Executive Session submissions explicitly address the diversity of session participants, such as organizational/institutional affiliation, career stage, race, ethnicity, disability, sexuality, class, religion, national identity, and gender. Proposals for Executive Sessions that demonstrated a commitment to equity and inclusion and/or a clear analysis of power (i.e. anti-imperialist, anti-white supremacist, decolonial, anti-ableist, feminist, anti-transphobic, anti-xenophobic, etc) were given priority. We are excited to be in conversation with residents of the Baltimore region and look forward to the discussions, performances, and actions generated by the dynamic group of anthropologists attending the 2021 AAA Annual Meeting.

AAA Annual Meeting 2021

“Truth and Responsibility” is a call to reimagine anthropology to meet the demands of the present moment. The imperative to bear witness, take action, and be held accountable to the truths we write and circulate invites us to reflect on our responsibility in reckoning with disciplinary histories, harms, and possibilities. To whom are we giving evidence and toward what ends? For whom are we writing? To whom are we accountable, and in what ways? We are thrilled to announce the theme of the 2021 AAA Annual Meeting to be held in Baltimore, MD: Truth and Responsibility.

Victoria Boydell

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Presentations

Opting out as refusal: women engaging and refusing reproductive technologies over time