"This book is compelling and adds a significant contribution to the ongoing conversation about the relevance of archaeology and cultural anthropology to one another. It provides not only an intellectual history of this divide but also excellent examples from both cultural anthropologists and archaeologists of the utility of the work to the other side, the ways in which we can and should collaborate, and whether the divide is even something we should be concerned about."
—David Hoffman, Mississippi State University
"These 'Thin Partitions'... [offers] a lively debate on the future of intra- and inter-disciplinary collaboration in a twenty-first century anthropology."
—Anthropology Book Forum
These "Thin Partitions" explores the intellectual and methodological differences that separate two of the four subdisciplines within the field of anthropology: archaeology and cultural anthropology. Contributors examine the theoretical underpinnings of this separation and explore what can be gained by joining them, both in university departments and in field research.
In case studies highlighting the benefits of interdisciplinary collaboration, contributors argue that anthropologists and archaeologists are simply not “speaking the same language” and that the division between fields undermines the field of anthropology as a whole. Scholars must bridge this gap and find ways to engage in interdisciplinary collaboration to promote the health of the anthropological discipline. By sharing data, methods, and ideas, archaeology and cultural anthropology can not only engage in more productive debates but also make research accessible to those outside academia.
These "Thin Partitions" gets to the heart of a well-known problem in the field of anthropology and contributes to the ongoing debate by providing concrete examples of how interdisciplinary collaboration can enhance the outcomes of anthropological research.
Contributors: Fredrik Fahlander, Lilia Fernández Souza, Kent Fowler, Donna Goldstein, Joseph R. Hellweg, Derek Johnson, Ashley Kistler, Vincent M. LaMotta, John Monaghan, William A. Parkinson, Paul Shankman, David Small
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