Previous articleNext article FreeReintegrating Anthropology: From Inside Out Wenner-Gren Symposium Supplement 13Leslie C. AielloLeslie C. Aiello Search for more articles by this author PDFPDF PLUSFull Text Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinked InRedditEmailQR Code SectionsMoreReintegrating Anthropology: From Inside Out is the 150th symposium in the Wenner-Gren series and the thirteenth symposium to be published an as open-access supplementary issue of the Foundation’s journal, Current Anthropology. The symposium, titled “Integrating Anthropology: Niche Construction, Cultural Institutions, and History,” was organized by Agustin Fuentes (University of Notre Dame) and Polly Wiessner (University of Utah) and was held October 16–22, 2014, at the Tivoli Palacio de Seteais, Sintra, Portugal (fig. 1).Figure 1. Participants in the symposium “Integrating Anthropology.” Front row, from left: Leslie Aiello, Cristina Moya, Douglas Bird, Ashley Grimes, Kathryn Coe, Mary Shenk, Maurice Bloch, Polly Wiessner, Beverly Strassmann, Laurie Obbink. Back row, from left: Agustin Fuentes, Greg Downey, Pierre Lienard, Ben Purzycki, Alan Barnard, Lee Gettler, Barry Hewlett, Scott Atran.View Large ImageDownload PowerPointThe starting point for this symposium was Eric Wolf’s statement that “Anthropology is both the most scientific of the humanities and the most humanistic of the sciences” (Wolf 1984). Anthropology, after all, is the study of human biological and cultural variation over time, and anthropologists variously approach the broad field from both scientific and humanistic perspectives—and have done so since the beginnings of the discipline. The focus of Reintegrating Anthropology is not the disciplinary, theoretical, or methodological breadth of anthropology, but rather the value of integrating both scientific and humanistic or constructivist approaches to answer specific anthropological questions. The title of the symposium emphasizes reintegration, and it is true that after the exponential expansion of the field (particularly in North America) from the mid-1960s to the mid-1970s, much of the appreciation of the value of cross-fertilization between ethnographic, evolutionary, experimental, and interpretive approaches was lost (Fuentes and Wiessner 2016). The main aim of the symposium was to rekindle interest in the value of integration and to provide concrete examples from across the discipline demonstrating the uniquely anthropological understandings that derive from theoretical pluralism.The symposium brought together 17 participants who were enthusiastic about intellectual engagement with diverse theoretical approaches. Fuentes and Wiessner (2016; Fuentes 2016) offered niche construction theory and the extended evolutionary synthesis as a common framework for analysis; however, it rapidly became clear that the focus should be on a broader theoretical engagement. In particular, the integration of etic (from the outside) and emic (from the inside) approaches became a central theme (e.g., Bloch 2016; Wiessner 2016). The unifying factor among all of the participants was a deep interest in drawing on multiple theoretical approaches and the rich results that could be achieved through the (re)integration of anthropology as a scientific/humanistic discipline.Some examples of the breadth of topics include Hewlett (2016), who proposes an integrated theoretical approach called evolutionary cultural anthropology (ECA) and uses the Ebola outbreak as well as hunter-gatherer childhood as examples. Atran (2016) and Sheikh, Gómez, and Atran (2016) develop the devoted actor model to understand suicide bombers, the global jihadi, and the Islamic State. And Downey (2016) approaches questions of being human in cities, the epitome of human niche construction. He outlines novel challenges of the city, such as unprecedented levels of social interaction and high-energy food resources, and their effect on aspects of human biology and culture.The Wenner-Gren Foundation is no stranger to integrated anthropology, which has been part of its mission since it was founded 75 years ago. The first Wenner-Gren symposium, the “International Symposium on Anthropology” organized by Alfred Kroeber in 1952, brought together 81 international anthropologists representing the breadth of the discipline to inventory anthropology and leading ultimately to the creation of Current Anthropology (Silverman 2009). The next major multidisciplinary symposium, “Man’s Role in Changing the Face of the Earth,” organized by Carl Sauer, Marston Bates, and Lewis Mumford in 1955, focused on human influence on the environment. Both the symposium and the resulting volume (Thomas 1956) are considered benchmarks in the multidisciplinary study of ecological systems, foreshadowing current interest in the Anthropocene.Over the past 40 years, as integrated approaches have fallen out of favor with many anthropologists, the Foundation has continued to champion theoretical breadth. Some of the symposia discussed the value of integrated approaches straight on (e.g., Goodman and Letterman 1998), while others addressed topics such as food habits (Harris and Ross 1987), tools, language, and intelligence (Gibson and Ingold 1993), sexuality (Abramson and Pinkerton 1995), and genetics (Goodman, Heath, and Lindee 2003) from broad and diverse theoretical perspectives. The current contributions follow on from this rich history and provide clear examples of the value of the integrated approach to anthropology and the significant contributions that can be made by breaking down the barriers that have continued to rise between scientific and humanistic approaches to our discipline.We are always looking for new ideas from all areas of anthropology for future Foundation-sponsored and Foundation-organized symposia and eventual CA publication. Please contact us with your ideas and a proposal. Information about the Wenner-Gren Foundation, the symposium program, application procedures and deadlines, and what constitutes a good symposium topic can be found on the Foundation’s website (http://wennergren.org/programs/international-symposia).References CitedAbramson, Paul, and Steven Pinkerton, eds. 1995. Sexual nature/sexual culture. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.First citation in articleGoogle ScholarAtran, Scott. 2016. 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Previous articleNext article DetailsFiguresReferencesCited by Current Anthropology Volume 57, Number S13June 2016Reintegrating Anthropology: From Inside Out Sponsored by the Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1086/685711 © 2016 by The Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research. All rights reserved.PDF download Crossref reports the following articles citing this article:Cathy Willermet, Sang-Hee Lee Discussion and Conclusion, (Nov 2019): 202–216.https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108569125.012