Engaged Anthropology

Reviewed by: Engaged Anthropology: Politics Beyond the Text by Stuart Kirsch Charles R. Menzies (bio) Stuart Kirsch. Engaged Anthropology: Politics Beyond the Text. Oakland: University of California Press, 2018. A great many anthropologists believe their practice and their discipline is inherently "engaged." They see themselves as "mobilizing anthropology for constructive interventions into politics" (Kirsch 2018, 1). Few however take the time to write about it in such detail as Stuart Kirsch does in his new book, Engaged Anthropology. Engaged Anthropology is the story of a veteran anthropologist whose work goes beyond the mere theoretical interests of lectern and seminar. [End Page 113] Kirsch's story draws directly from his long-term ethnographic work with Indigenous Papua New Guineans struggling against trans-national capital, his consulting work with environmental non-governmental organizations and short-term research preparing expert opinions, and from his taking a stab at political interventions in his university workplace. All together this is a rich monograph with much for a range of readers interested in engaged research. One of the strengths of this book is the author's openness with the drawbacks of engaged research. This happens at the same time he makes a sustained argument for how engaged anthropology is a net benefit to the discipline (and, by extension, society). All through the book we are presented with the particularly problematic aspects of engaged anthropology. One may, as Kirsch did while involved the struggle against Ok Tedi Mining, be presented with confidential information wherein the anthropologist "may have to choose between protecting the interests of their informants and revealing internal political dynamics" (29). Conversely, anthropologists might find their field notes subpoenaed (37). Then there is the realization that despite every intention, "it is not possible for the anthropologist to make a meaningful contribution to the political struggles of the people with whom they work" (75). Or, as Stuart Kirsch further notes, his "desire to identify economic opportunities that could reduce support for destructive resource extraction projects ... didn't alter his ethnographic findings. But it's effect on his overall assessment of conservation initiatives [i.e. overly optimistic] suggest the need for greater attention to these issues by engaged anthropologists" (105). All of these situations create potential pitfalls for engaged anthropologists. Kirsch works through each of these (and a host of others) in a careful, measured way that lets readers decide for themselves if there is any value in engaged anthropology. Of the many issues that Stuart Kirsch thoughtfully examines, there are two that stand out to me. The first is the issue of cultural loss and how anthropologists might prepare effective expert opinions on that issue. The second is the role of engagement at home in one's own department. These are issues that speak to me as an Indigenous anthropologist who has been called upon to write expert opinions for litigation over the infringement of aboriginal rights and title, and as a faculty activist who regularly engages in campus politics. [End Page 114] Kirsch takes up the issue of cultural loss in his chapter concerning work he did for Marshall Islanders in relation to seeking compensation for displacement by US military weapons testing (136–64). He notes how Islanders spoke with pathos and grief over the loss of cultural practice, knowledge, and lifeways brought about by the atom bomb tests of the 1940s and 1950s. Yet, the idea that loss is disruptive and problematic runs against the grain of contemporary anthropological thought; it "poses a problem of analysis for anthropologists, given contemporary definitions of culture as a process that continually undergoes change, rather than as something that can be damaged or lost" (138). I would suggest this is a problem with anthropological thinking and its Eurocentric origins. Kirsch is more forgiving and steers the reader toward the idea of "recognition of cultural property rights" as a way "to address this critical blind spot of the culture concept, in which loss is unseen or undervalued" (139). He takes us through, not simply his own ethnographic work on the problem, but also related cases (such as the Exxon Valdez oil spill) to develop the idea of cultural property rights as a mechanism to open the eyes of market

Applied anthropology · Argument (complex analysis · Constructive · Ethnography · Indigenous · Media studies · Political science · Politics · Process (computing · Sociocultural anthropology · Sociology · Anthropology · Anthropology: Ethics, History, Culture · Law