A Meta- Archive: An honor role for anthropology

I have been ask “What approaches seem most promising for capturing our anthropological legacy ?  Aren't the many new special communities in the AAA a step in that direction?

I can see the particular value of a” closer-knit sphere” of like minded individuals might offer an opportunity for individuals to promote themselves within the group. But I feel this is short term thinking and only encourages further fragmentation in what is supposed to be the science of man. I am arguing for a meta-archive that aggregates the individual memories of a colleague and points to the sources that might reveal something significant about the individual’s career and/or validation it.

My focus is the establishment of a biographical, or obituary, site for the older generation to share the memories of their careers in anthropology and how they got there. But more than that, a place where others can also share their memories of the individual, and how they were influenced by or may have influenced the subject. This site would be used to comment on one’s personal thoughts about how one’s mentors, students, and personal experience have affected them and their careers. These  memories would not necessarily be part of a “official” record of the subject, rather provide context for the subject's life.

Such a Meta-Archive is where future generations could look for historical insight into a particular anthropologist’s development and his/her perspective. Studied collectively, these insights become the auto-ethnography of our discipline.

I am not calling for a central physical archive per se, instead I would like to see a centralized data base where one could go and begin their research into the life and contributions of individual anthropologists. It would be a database irrespective of the individual’s institutional affiliations or career orientation. It would incorporate the advantages of the internet and search engines. Such a database exists, albeit rather primitive. This is the Wikipedia List of Anthropologists.

One of the principle problems we face as a discipline is authenticity. Presently there is no authority nor requirement that determines who is and who is not an anthropologist. There are many who hold the degree but don’t identify with the profession. And there are many who identify with the profession but have little or no affiliation with any of the formal anthropological institutions. 

To use myself as an example, I have played in both roles at different times in my life. I hold the formal degrees in anthropology, BA, MA, and PhD. I have done research and taught at the University and cross-culturally. But much of that research has been proprietary as opposed to academic. Most of  of the academic teaching has been in business program as temporary or adjunct.  Yet, I feel that I am and have been applying the anthropological perspective throughout my adult life.

The reason I originally raised the question about archives was because I wondered what the profession was doing to preserve its member’s history. Since much of my professional life has been ‘applied anthropology” I wonder if there is any interest in that material. And in a selfish sense, I wondered, “should I plan on “archiving” my own professional and personal “anthropological” material, or just arrange to dispose of it.” I have material that I would like to share about the anthropologists, professors and colleagues, who have an influenced on my career. So often we rarely hear from such people -- in part because there are so few opportunities to share it.

At my age this has becomes a real concern. As a result, I found myself searching the internet for an answer. Scott Spicer’s posting and then finding the Spicer Archive at the U of Arizona led me to think about the question, specially in terms of “legacy”.

Searching through Wikipedia, I began thinking about a new way of creating an archive. This is a meta-archive. The meta-archive is a self-correcting catalog of individual biographies that identify where and who one might look for, or to the location of the physical evidence and the witnesses to a specific individual’s anthropological career. I am testing this out today by restructuring Edward Spicer’s page on Wikipedia.

We are at a stage where the internet (electronic) archives are being created, maintained, and lost daily. No single physical archive can be expected to define a profession’s legacy. But a Meta-archive can be assembled that will capture the range of experience that is our legacy. The internet is such a Meta-archive. Wikipedia is one such site, universally available in over 100 languages and open to both instant updating,  critical evaluation and editing. Most of all, it is a starting place for deeper and more detailed research. What is lacking is a standard format that acts as a guide, and the individual participation of students, colleagues, and other contributing their experiences in building the the individual legacy sites.