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Descent with Modification: Bioanthropological Identities in 2009
Author(s) -
Rutherford Julienne
Publication year - 2010
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/j.1548-1433.2010.01218.x
Subject(s) - primatology , discipline , sociology , identity (music) , multitude , attendance , anthropology , field (mathematics) , epistemology , social science , political science , law , aesthetics , philosophy , mathematics , pure mathematics
In the year of Darwin, what were the emerging themes and events that united disparate manifestations of bioanthropological identities? In this review, I draw from conference proceedings, the literature, and electronic social networking to assess six major developments in 2009: the bioanthropological legacy of Darwin on the 200th anniversary of his birth; the efforts of primatologists from a multitude of backgrounds to grapple with the construction of a unified ethics; the remediation of philosophical tensions between field and captive primatology; the coalescence of an explicitly comparative evolutionary anthropology; the role of conference attendance and collaborations in forging disciplinary identity; and the provocative implications of the Ardipithecus ramidus story. The field of biological anthropology continues to evolve and diversify, obscuring a common identity, but as in other organic fractal systems, a common origin as anthropologists leads to descent with modification.