The National Socio-Environmental Synthesis Center's video: Foundations and Debates in Anthropology

In this lecture, Dr. Paige West outlines an intellectual genealogy of anthropology, describes past and present epistemologies underlying anthropology, and discusses key debates throughout the history of the discipline. Anthropology’s origins can be traced to European colonial efforts to understand a world enlarged by exploration, conquest, and movement. Beginning with Aquinas, anthropology has been informed by schemas identifying and explaining differences between groups of people. Debates around the nature and importance of differences encountered during colonial expeditions, conquests, and governance were defined by contemporary intellectual contexts. These included late-medieval theological concerns over free will and human nature; Enlightenment paradigms of teleological development and progress toward perfection applied to groups of people; and emulation of the unifying theories of the natural sciences in the 19th century informed by Darwin. The epistemic foundations of anthropology are thoroughly entwined with colonialism; both the intellectual paradigms and material practices trace their origins to the production of knowledge in imperial metropoles, removal of material and people from peripheral territories, and application of knowledge to colonial governance. Reckoning with these foundations in the late 20th century provoked a crisis in the discipline, leading to the development of new emphases and intellectual frameworks such as the ethnographic and theoretical turns, as well as anthropologists leaving academic positions and bringing these critical reflections to their work in conservation and development organizations. This video is a recording of a presentation given as part of SESYNC’s Socio-Environmental Immersion Distinguished Scholar Workshop: Anthropology.