Practicing Military Anthropology: Beyond Expectations and Traditional Boundaries

by Robert A. Rubinstein (Editor), Kerry Fosher (Editor), Clementine Fujimura (Editor)

The relationship between anthropologists and the United States military has commanded a lot of attention, especially in regard to the controversial Human Terrain System (HTS) that embeds anthropologists in military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. Conversations at professional meetings, in the pages of disciplinary journals and in books have been heated and frequently harshly polemical with some participants branding military anthropologists as war criminals.

In this book, a number of anthropologists who have either worked with the US armed forces or who teach at military service academies reflect on what they do and teach in their military anthropologist personae. Through their personal accounts they show that the practice of military anthropology is much more than HTS and that they are more than mere “technicians of the state” as critics allege. Revealed here are thoughtful and moving essays that deal with issues of ethics, morality and professional decorum. Whether one agrees with these accounts or not, they do show that the linkage of anthropology with the military is complex and multi-faceted and the importance of frank and open exchanges of ideas for dealing with the relationship of military anthropology to the wider discipline.

Essential reading for those considering anthropology as a career, those concerned about the relationship of the academy to the military and for those seeking to fathom transformations in our lives following 9/11 and the ongoing “war against terror.”

208 pages, Paperback

First published September 1, 2012

Reviews

[Jennifer Kern]

“These deeply personal, and often profoundly moving ethnographical studies detail the lives and work of several anthropologists, routinely engaged in their profession. Their efforts encompass the study of ancient indigenous cultures and repatriation of Native American burial remains on federal land, teaching a wide range of intellectually-challenging courses to diverse students in a variety of university classroom settings, conducting highly-specialized field research in foreign locales, and providing valuable support to international humanitarian aid, peace-keeping, and development projects abroad. Professor Rubinstein’s shocking revelations of brutal and cruel professional malfeasance committed by leading scholars against other contributors to this volume lays bare a shameful and deeply rooted pathology within the disciplinary culture that poses a grave threat to the collective integrity and, indeed, to the very future of anthropology itself."
- George R. Lucas, Jr. (Ph.D.), Professor of Ethics & Public Policy at the Naval Postgraduate School, Distinguished Chair of Ethics at the U.S. Naval Academy

[University of Chicago Magazine]

Clementine Fujimura, AM'87, PhD'93
Coeditor

From our pages (Jan–Feb/13): "The relationship between anthropologists and the US military is often controversial, especially regarding the Human Terrain System, an army-led initiative to embed anthropologists with military operations in Iraq and Afganistan. In heated discussions in academic journals and conferences, military anthropologists have been called unethical and unprofessional, accused of being war criminals and spies. A professor of anthropology at the US Naval Academy, Fujimura and her coeditors offer personal accounts from anthropologists who have worked with the military or teach in military service academies. They argue that the discipline’s links to the armed services are complex and multifaceted, defying reductionist critiques and easy assumptions."

[Clementine]

one close to my heart....