Wiley-Online-Library: Annals of Anthropological Practice: Table of Contents

Demystifying Community Buy‐In for an Agricultural Health and Safety Intervention in Rural Wisconsin, USA

Jakob Hanschu, Casper G. Bendixsen, Kathrine L. Barnes — Thu, 14 May 2026 12:14:44 -0700

ABSTRACT

Anthropologists and public health professionals have long recognized the value of people-centered, community-based interventions. Securing community buy-in is an essential precursor to any successful community-based intervention. We describe the adaptation of pile sort methods to understand existing community relations, establish community buy-in, and design and implement a community-based intervention in agricultural health and safety. Participants’ responses led to the development of Rural Firefighters Delivering Agriculture, Safety and Health (RF-DASH), a widely supported community-based form of intervention originated in Wisconsin and now disseminated across the United States and Canada. We conclude that the adapted pile sort methods effectively elicited support for a community health program in a dispersed, rural population.

What Do Anthropological Practitioners Do? Analyzing Professional Practice in Chile to Inform Curriculum Design in Anthropology

Ignacio S. Marmolejo, Francisca Massone — Thu, 14 May 2026 12:14:44 -0700

ABSTRACT

Schools of anthropology worldwide are increasingly challenged to support their graduates’ career development. Yet most undergraduate and graduate programs continue to prioritize academic knowledge and skills, often sidelining applied and practicing anthropology. This research elaborates a comprehensive list of skills and competencies to inform a critical reevaluation of anthropological training. Drawing on semi-structured interviews with 30 Chilean practicing anthropologists, it examines their educational and professional trajectories. The findings highlight that “proving one's value” and cultivating “a professional self” are crucial skills. While the anthropological gaze remains a core asset, it requires complementation by new competencies that respond to the demands of non-academic settings. Although focused on the Chilean context, the study offers insights relevant for curricular design in anthropology programs facing similar challenges globally.

“Be Proactive, Perform Regular Skin Self‐Exams and Protect Yourself”: Producing the Skin‐Aware Biocitizen in the Context of the United States

Antigone Mungia, Cindi SturtzSreetharan, Alissa Ruth, Sarah Trainer — Thu, 14 May 2026 12:14:44 -0700

ABSTRACT

We analyze US-based online skin cancer organization awareness campaigns, with a particular focus on melanoma, to ask how the skin is discursively created. We focus on the ways people are pushed into the role of the biocitizen and impelled to act in specific ways within the current neoliberal health risk culture. Undertaking a discourse analysis of skin cancer education information reveals that skin is constructed as fragile, at risk, and in need of routine scrutiny initiated by the individual. The skin is also constructed as impossible to fully protect. The individual is responsible for managing this risk burden for themself and for family. This includes protective clothing and sunscreen, as well as learning to anticipate where and when sun exposure may occur. Across the US-based organizations providing skin cancer education, the neoliberal project of the self is focused on the body's largest and most exposed organ: the skin. Undertaking close skin surveillance can lead to unanticipated harms, including fear, anxiety, reduction in activities, and overdiagnosis.

Remaking Kabaddi: Participatory Action Research and Intercultural Sports in Hong Kong

Wai‐Man Tang — Thu, 14 May 2026 12:14:44 -0700

ABSTRACT

This article examines the evolution of Fun with Kabaddi (2015–2024), an intercultural sports initiative in Hong Kong, through the framework of participatory action research (PAR). Designed to foster inclusive sports experiences and improve ethnic relations through community engagement, the program shifted from isolated events to sustained involvement. Innovations such as the reinterpretation of kabaddi's cultural narratives, the development of tag kabaddi, and the introduction of a kabaddi mascot addressed safety concerns and prioritized collaboration over competition. By drawing on co-researchers’ lived experiences and reflexive practices, this study demonstrates how community-driven redesigns can challenge academic dominance and enhance program outcomes. Although limited funding precluded comprehensive evaluation, preliminary findings indicate increased participation and reduced conflict. This research advances PAR methodology and community-engaged scholarship by providing practical strategies for designing inclusive sports programs in ethnically diverse urban contexts.

Survival Strategies: Food Foraging and Processing in the Timorese Guerrilla Fighters’ Resistance to Indonesian Starvation Policy, 1975–1979

Therese Thi Phuong Tam Nguyen — Thu, 14 May 2026 12:14:44 -0700

ABSTRACT

During Indonesia's 24-year occupation of East Timor, the “faminogenic” policy was a brutal war strategy that deliberately restricted food access, causing widespread suffering and death. From 1977, the Indonesian army systematically destroyed bush camps in liberated zones led by the revolutionary movement for independence, leading to severe hunger and loss of life. The population was forced into controlled areas, leaving Timorese guerrilla fighters struggling to survive in the jungles without reliable food sources. These fighters relied on traditional knowledge, utilizing resources such as wild bitter beans, wild yams, and bush foods to endure. This study explores local food knowledge, drawing primarily on interviews with guerrilla veterans. Through these accounts, the author has described innovative food preservation techniques, either passed down by ancestors or developed in the jungle. The narratives reveal how survival strategies intertwined with cultural heritage, offering insights into resilience amid extreme adversity. The veterans’ stories provide valuable lessons, highlighting a wealth of knowledge about adaptation and survival. This study not only preserves these oral histories but also highlights their relevance for understanding food security and cultural continuity in post-conflict contexts, contributing to broader discussions on indigenous knowledge and wartime survival strategies.

Career Search Patterns in Anthropology: Repurposing Keyword Data to Map Professional Pathways

Matt Artz — Thu, 14 May 2026 12:14:44 -0700

ABSTRACT

This study analyzes search keyword data to examine what career pathways people associate with anthropological identity when explicitly framing job searches around disciplinary training. Using search engine keyword data collected in October 2025, the analysis examines 42,290 monthly searches across 2,880 unique keywords containing “anthropology” or its subfield names. The findings reveal stark concentrations: forensic anthropology dominates with approximately 3,140 monthly searches, more than three times the next highest category. Medical and public health, academia and teaching, and traditional applied domains follow at substantially lower volumes. Notably, industry pathways that successfully employ many anthropologists barely register in anthropology-labeled searches, revealing a disconnect between search patterns and known employment realities. This pattern raises questions about how disciplinary identity connects to career pathway visibility, whether it reflects pedagogical emphases, communication challenges, or paradoxically, successful skill translation that makes disciplinary labels unnecessary during job searches. Methodologically, this research demonstrates the value of using digital methods to understand patterns within the discipline itself.

Cheating or Competing? University Students’ Experience of AI Marketing and What It Means for AI Literacy Programming

Elisa J. Sobo, David M. Goldberg, Sean W. Hauze, James P. Frazee — Thu, 14 May 2026 12:14:44 -0700

ABSTRACT

Given generative AI's rapid incursion into higher education, we examined how AI tools are marketed to US college students and how students experience AI promotions. Using a scalable action research model, we collected and analyzed 131 social media ads, 48 student interviews, and field notes compiled by three interns at student-facing AI companies. Interviewees described AI use as a practical necessity shaped by grading systems, peer norms, and AI's digital ubiquity. While many associated AI with cheating and worried about dependency and learning forfeitures, most felt compelled to adopt it to stay competitive, reflecting an internalized entrepreneurial imperative. Further, most favored product over process, as do many higher education systems. Findings indicated a need for destigmatization, more open student-teacher exchange, and marketing literacy education supporting students in critically analyzing promotional strategies as a regular part of AI hygiene. Results are being used to update the California State University system's AI micro-credential.

Issue Information

Thu, 14 May 2026 12:14:44 -0700

Annals of Anthropological Practice, Volume 50, Issue 1, May 2026.

The American Psychiatric Association's Construction of Culture for Mental Disorders: Analyzing the DSM‐6 Framework From Clinically Applied Medical Anthropology

Neil Krishan Aggarwal — Tue, 12 May 2026 12:08:54 -0700

ABSTRACT

The American Psychiatric Association's (APA) recent publications about the Sixth Edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-6) exhibit an emerging concept of culture. This article reviews the contributions of clinically applied medical anthropology to prior DSM revisions, showing how anthropologists and psychiatrists have transformed the culture concept from belonging to minority patients to an interactive exchange among all patients and clinicians. Regrettably, the APA's articles about DSM-6 exhibit a theory of practice that I call reflexive areflexivity in lacking examination into how psychiatrists are positioned in relation to patients and their research. DSM-6 treats culture as secondary to biology, important mostly for minoritized patients, and as a static variable, not an interactional process. To reverse course, the APA can publicize scientific debates about DSM-6, include experts on culture and diagnosis, and revise definitions for diagnoses based on the ethnographic record.