On Palestine, Humanism and the Purpose of Anthropology

Anthropologists across all our diverse subfields and specialties have long asserted that “the purpose of anthropology is to make the world safe for human differences.” We declare this to our fellow scholars, instill it in our students, and profess it to the world. Our work spans all corners of the earth. Through ethnography our field has had the honor and privilege of decades of studying socio-cultural and economic phenomena as understood from the point of view of those who experience it. We’re credited with bringing a wealth of lived experience, through a humanistic lens, to the forefront of understanding power, human agency, colonization, and violence in all its forms. Often finding ourselves working with, in, and for marginalized communities, we have long recognized that those who most acutely understand the roots of oppression are those who live it. We contend that it is their voice which must shape social and political policy and drive systems change. Solidarity with the oppressed is often an essential part of the anthropological toolkit. <a href="https://medium.com/@annamartinezhume/on-palestine-humanism-and-the-purpose-of-anthropology-c2ba7e8e5412">Read More</a>