ANTH 112 Introduction to Socio-cultural Anthropology
Winter 2018
Mar. 20, Anthropology and war
READ: Lutz, Catherine (2009) “Anthropology in an era of permanent war.”  Anthropologica 51(2): 367-379.

Lutz’ article is the text of a talk given to a scholarly conference (CASCA)
    - follows some of the conventions of an essay, but is a call to action
    - note her emphasis on political and economic factors, rather than cultural ones.
    - compare her approach to that of Abu-Lughod
- what is the “era of permanent war”?
    - how does she describe it in terms of: budget; number of people; reach (globally and in terms of both US and global work forces); degree of surveillance; implications of the importance of the arms manufacturing sector for the US economy; implications of the proliferations of weapons for human security?
- how is the discipline of anthropology engaged in this era of permanent war?
- still, anthropologists actually in military are a small part of the problem. The bigger problem is how the US military provides funding at universities.
    - why is research funding so important with respect to this situation?
- what is the difference between an anthropology for and an anthropology of the military?
- what kind of research is needed?

AAA series on “The Military Present”
http://www.americananthropologist.org/2018/02/19/anthropological-airwaves-special-feature-on-the-military-present/, interview with Jeff Masco
Also Cultural Anthropology’s Drone Anthropod: https://culanth.org/fieldsights/1197-drone-anthropology-poetry-military

next

CASCA (Canadian Anthropology Society/Société Canadienne d’Anthropologie) 2008 conference (Carleton University): Ethnography: Entanglements and Ruptures/Ethnographie: enchevêtrements et ruptures.