Where Have You Gone, Margaret Mead? Anthropology and Public Intellectuals

  I maintain that, in today's perilous world, anthropologists have many productive ideas and much useful information to share with the public, in general, and policy makers, in particular. To make such ideas and information more accessible, anthropologists need to further strengthen their public outreach. I argue here that one potentially fruitful way to facilitate such outreach is to have more anthropologists become visible, recognized public intellectuals, just as Margaret Mead so successfully was in the past. I also examine some of the barriers to anthropological outreach, such as academic tenure and promotion procedures and professional attitudes toward outreach, and suggest some solutions to overcome these barriers.