Evidentiary truths? The evidence of anthropology through the anthropology of medical evidence

Abstract

Anthropologists have become increasingly concerned about the discipline's lack of ‘public engagement’ with contemporary issues of late, but a key underlying problem ‐ anthropology's unwillingness to address the nature and evidentiary status of anthropological knowledge itself ‐ has remained largely unacknowledged. Here I approach this problem initially through an analysis of the rise of ‘evidence’ as a central concept in public policy and practice. Using the exemplar of ‘evidence‐based’ medicine, I analyse anthropological responses to these evidentiary requirements, arguing that this turn to evidence can be seen in many other arenas of research and public policy and presents a fundamental challenge for the credibility and legitimacy of anthropology as a discipline. In the second part of the article comparison with anthropological work on legal issues provides a reflexive opening through which to begin to consider the nature of anthropological ‘evidence’ itself.