American Ethnologist

American Ethnologist
Title	American Ethnologist
Discipline	Anthropology
Language	English
Publisher	University of California Press
Country	United States
Frequency	Quarterly
History	1974–present

American Ethnologist is a peer-reviewed scholarly journal in cultural anthropology that publishes research on social life across the Americas and beyond. Founded in the 1970s, the journal has engaged debates involving fieldwork, ethnography, theory, and applied practice, fostering dialogue among scholars affiliated with institutions such as University of California, Berkeley, Harvard University, University of Chicago, Columbia University, and University of Cambridge. It serves as a venue connecting work by scholars associated with organizations like the American Anthropological Association, Association of Social Anthropologists of the UK and Commonwealth, Royal Anthropological Institute, National Science Foundation, and museums such as the American Museum of Natural History.

History

The journal was established in the context of transformations in postwar social science and area studies, sharing intellectual space with publications such as American Anthropologist, Cultural Anthropology, Current Anthropology, Ethnohistory, and Journal of Latin American Studies. Early editors and contributors included figures linked to projects at Columbia University and University of California, Los Angeles, with intellectual interlocutors from the circles of Clifford Geertz, Marshall Sahlins, Pierre Bourdieu, Victor Turner, and Julian Steward. The journal evolved through debates about the legacy of structuralism, interpretive anthropology, and political economy, aligning at times with scholarship related to the Cold War, decolonization, civil rights movement, and the expansion of area studies funded by agencies such as the Ford Foundation and the Carnegie Corporation. Over successive editorial boards tied to departments at University of Michigan, Stanford University, University of Texas at Austin, and Yale University, the journal responded to methodological shifts influenced by work from scholars at Manchester University, University of Toronto, Australian National University, and the London School of Economics.

Scope and Content

The journal features ethnographic studies, theoretical essays, critical reviews, and debates spanning regions including North America, Latin America, the Caribbean, and transnational networks linking scholars to sites such as Mexico City, Buenos Aires, Havana, Toronto, Los Angeles, New York City, San Juan (Puerto Rico), and San Salvador. Themes engage with topics debated in writings by Edward Said, Michel Foucault, Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, Arjun Appadurai, and Anna Tsing, bringing into conversation historical studies tied to the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, the Mexican Revolution, the Cuban Revolution, and migrations shaped by events such as the Vietnam War and the Iranian Revolution. Articles examine interactions among institutions like the World Bank, United Nations, Pan American Health Organization, and indigenous movements connected to leaders and scholars like Rigoberta Menchú, Subcomandante Marcos, Efraín Ríos Montt, and activists linked to Zapatismo.

Editorial Structure and Policies

The journal operates under a peer-review system administered by an editorial board drawn from universities such as Duke University, University of Pennsylvania, Cornell University, Princeton University, and Brown University. Its policies reflect changes in scholarly publishing that parallel initiatives at presses like University of California Press, Oxford University Press, Cambridge University Press, and journals including American Journal of Sociology and Comparative Studies in Society and History. Submission guidelines require anonymized manuscripts, ethical statements akin to protocols of the American Anthropological Association, and data-sharing expectations influenced by debates involving agencies such as the National Institutes of Health and funders like the Social Science Research Council. The editorial process has addressed controversies over authorship ethics highlighted in cases connected to fieldwork disputes and replications debated in venues like Science and Nature.

Publication and Access

Published quarterly by the University of California Press, the journal is distributed through academic channels serving libraries at institutions including the Library of Congress, Harvard Library, British Library, and consortia such as JSTOR and Project MUSE. Digital access policies intersect with open-access movements associated with initiatives like Plan S and repositories such as SSRN and institutional archives at MIT and Stanford University Libraries. Subscription models and embargoes mirror discussions in the wider publishing world involving commercial publishers such as Elsevier, Springer, and Wiley-Blackwell, while university presses and associations explore hybrid open access options and Creative Commons licensing.

Reception and Impact

Scholars across departments and organizations have cited the journal in contexts involving interdisciplinary debates with historians at Princeton University, sociologists at University of California, Santa Barbara, political scientists at Georgetown University, and legal scholars at Yale Law School. Its impact is reflected in citation networks linking articles to works in journals such as American Historical Review, Modern Language Quarterly, Social Text, and Public Culture. The journal has been influential in shaping curricula at graduate programs at University of Chicago, New School for Social Research, Goldsmiths, University of London, and National Autonomous University of Mexico. It has also been central to public anthropology interventions in forums associated with Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, and policy debates at the Inter-American Development Bank.

Notable Articles and Special Issues

Notable contributions include prize-recognized essays and special issues that have engaged topics such as transnationalism linked to migration studies involving Alejandro Portes and Douglas S. Massey, indigeneity and rights debates associated with Arturo Escobar and Boaventura de Sousa Santos, and globalization critiques following James Ferguson and Anna Tsing. Special thematic issues addressed subjects including urban ethnography related to Jane Jacobs and Saskia Sassen, environmental anthropology tied to Jane Goodall and E. O. Wilson, and medical anthropological interventions in conversations with Paul Farmer and Nancy Scheper-Hughes. The journal’s forums and responses have engaged controversies around representation noted in exchanges with critics like Mary Louise Pratt and Homi K. Bhabha.

Category:Anthropology journals Category:Academic journals established in 1974