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What Do Anthropologists Mean When They Use the Term Biocultural ?
Author(s) -
Wiley Andrea S.,
Cullin Jennifer M.
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
american anthropologist
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.51
H-Index - 85
eISSN - 1548-1433
pISSN - 0002-7294
DOI - 10.1111/aman.12608
Subject(s) - anthropology , biological anthropology , holism , sociology , geography , epistemology , philosophy
The term biocultural is often invoked as a unifying theme in a holistic vision of anthropology. To ascertain patterns in its use and meaning in current anthropological publications, we conducted a bibliometric review of the use of biocultural in AAA journals, Current Anthropology ( CA ), Annual Review of Anthropology ( ARA ), and in American Journal of Human Biology ( AJHB ) from 2000–2014. The term was found in 177 articles in the sample from AAA journals, CA , and ARA , and in 74 AJHB articles, representing approximately 3 percent of the total number of articles published in the anthropology journals and approximately 5 percent of those in AJHB from 2000–2014. The term biocultural most commonly referred to how the social environment affects human biology (75% in AAA/CA/ARA , 95% in AJHB ) and was topically aligned with health (46% in AAA/CA/ARA , 77% in AJHB ). Articles from biological and cultural subfields were evenly represented in the AAA/CA/ARA sample (37% and 36%, respectively). There was extensive variation in what the term biocultural described. Evolutionary theory or political economic analyses were employed in a minority of articles using the term biocultural . Currently there is no consensus on what criteria define biocultural , and there is wide variation in its use. [ biocultural, holism, bibliometric analysis ]