Tuesday, July 12, 2011

Weaponizing Anthropology

A new book by David Price, Weaponizing Anthropology "documents how anthropological knowledge and ethnographic methods are harnessed by military and intelligence agencies in post-9/11 America to placate hostile foreign populations. Price's inquiry into past relationships between anthropologists and the CIA, FBI, and Pentagon provides the historical base for this expose of the current abuses of anthropology by military and intelligence agencies."

Here's a quotation from an endorsement for the book by author of Stone-Age Economics, Marshall Sahlins:
“Even before he published this masterly and comprehensive account, David Price has long been in the forefront of those warning of the adverse effects of militarizing the human sciences. Now, by matching an extraordinary command of the sources to a telling sensitivity to the political and intellectual consequences, he demonstrates in this definitive work that weaponizing anthropology is as damaging to the soul of the nation as it is to the integrity of the science. “

Published jointly by AK Press and Counterpunch - pre-publication purchase brings a 25% discount from AK Press.