?Ethnological knowledge is of vital importance?: The martialization of South African anthropology

Abstract

Like so many of my generation, I thought that the well-documented abuses of anthropology by military forces had successfully been buried by the aftermath of Vietnam. By the late seventies, however, my euphoric idealism began to wear thin as troubling rumors of anthropological involvement in military repression in many parts of the world began to occasionally circulate at professional meetings. Still, since this was only hearsay, the prevailing sentiment seems to be one of non-concern, especially if one's field of interest is the United States or far-off Papua New Guinea. In 1981 my perceptions changed. Cultural Survival, the Cambridge-based human rights organization, asked me to write a short article on the issue of !Kung Bushmen joining the South African army. This had been raised initially by Richard Lee and given publicity by the journal Science. As a budding Melanesianist I was rather out of touch with developments in Southern Africa. I thought a good way to generate pertinent information would be to circulate the Science article to departments of anthropology at South African universities. The responses proved to be a Pandora's box at the bottom of which lurked the hydra-headed monster of the South African Defence Force.