Thread by @culanth

While #anthrotwitter isn't always rosy, we have to ask: what's happening in @AmericanAnthro's Communities listserv? As anthropologists, we can examine peoples' practices and explore their broader meanings; pls add ethnographic data to this thread so we can understand these people

Update! Some might say this is anthropology in the 'salvage' tradition, so we should be clear that the culture of @AmericanAnthro’s Communities listserv is surviving and thriving. Some recent data

of a robust and lively culture,

with an endogamous approach to social reproduction,

complex customs around hierarchy,

and a particular understanding of gender,

sexuality,

and race,

that is at once patterned

and full of surprises.

It presents an opportunity for comparative study

and some have even proposed a Wagnerian reversal - the group will both analyse itself and its analysts

An interesting example of reverse anthropology in action:

The listserv community is open for multiple focuses of analysis. Some have suggested:

How or if they consider their colleagues;

how the practices and values within this community compare to others, and what might be causing the culture of this group to be so unique;

ongoing questions about power, hierarchies,

and the politics of memory;

and ethnohistorical work which could examine how the group tells its own history.

There are, of course, many questions about the ethics and politics of access,

but there is the possibility for multimodal work, like a museum or art exhibition, that could use the traditions of these people as a mode of educating others.

Like with all ethnography, it'll focus on unclear boundaries, like that which separates event from structure, or nightmares from reality, or bad apples from orchards,

and in so doing, the study will also help us to examine anthropology itself.