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THE ASSOCIATION OF BLACK ANTHROPOLOGISTS: A BRIEF HISTORY
Author(s) -
Harrison Ira E.
Publication year - 2010
Publication title -
transforming anthropology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.325
H-Index - 9
eISSN - 1548-7466
pISSN - 1051-0559
DOI - 10.1111/j.1548-7466.2010.01088.x
Subject(s) - citation , association (psychology) , library science , history , sociology , computer science , epistemology , philosophy
s of papers given by black anthropologists, and employment opportunities. It was felt that we needed to move from an ad hoc grouping to a formal association. Graduate student Jerry Wright became editor of the newsletter; graduate student Anselme Remy became chair of the caucus; and a steering committee of Wright, Remy, Delmos Jones, and graduate student Patricia Guthrie began writing a constitution for an Association of Black Anthropologists. It was mainly through the efforts of this committee and graduate student Gwen Mikell that the Black Anthropology Caucus became the Association of Black Anthropologists during the AAA meetings in San Francisco, December 2-6, 1975. Anselme Remy, the new provisional executive of the Association of Black Anthropologists and outgoing coordinator of the Black Anthropology Caucus, presented plaques and testimonies to Niara Sudarkasa and James Gibbs for: . contributions to the discipline of anthropology. the role they played in helping to transform the AfroAmerican anthropology caucus into the functioning ABA during the San Francisco meeting. . . and their contribution to black people (Mikell 1976). The Association of Black Anthropologists (ABA) The ABA is the child of the 70's, developing from the Black Anthropological Caucus. ABA began as an attempt of graduate students and junior-level anthropology professors 'to create a forum for communication among the members of the black anthropology community and of the need to work together to make anthropology relevant to Black people'(Walker 1982:2-6). The preamble to the Constitution of Black Anthropologists reflects the spirit and desire of this intellectually revolutionary group to form a more perfect union to achieve these ends: It is a known fact that anthropology and anthropologists have identified more with the interests of the colonial powers than with the interests of the colonized people they have studied. Today, the anthropology establishment continues to perceive and to analyze the social realities of these people within the framework of theories which were conceived to justify colonialism and racism. As Black and colonialized anthropologists, it is our duty to provide an organizational framework whereby we will change established approaches, methods and theories, and the relationships between anthropologists and the people they