Current Anthropology

Current Anthropology
Title	Current Anthropology
Discipline	Anthropology
Abbreviation	Curr. Anthropol.
Publisher	University of Chicago Press for the Wenner-Gren Foundation
Frequency	Monthly (combined issues)
History	1959–present

Current Anthropology Current Anthropology is a peer-reviewed academic journal that publishes research across archaeology, cultural anthropology, linguistic anthropology, and biological anthropology. It serves as a forum for interdisciplinary exchange among scholars associated with institutions such as the Wenner-Gren Foundation, the University of Chicago Press, the American Anthropological Association, and numerous universities worldwide. Contributors include field researchers, laboratory scientists, and theorists from settings ranging from the Smithsonian Institution to the Max Planck Institute.

Overview

The journal emphasizes empirical studies and synthetic theory that connect work conducted at sites like Olduvai Gorge, Çatalhöyük, and Mohenjo-daro with comparative analyses informed by collections at the British Museum, American Museum of Natural History, and the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology. It publishes articles engaging with debates tied to figures and works associated with Claude Lévi-Strauss, Franz Boas, Margaret Mead, Bronisław Malinowski, and Alfred Radcliffe-Brown, while also hosting interventions linked to scholars such as Marshall Sahlins, Clifford Geertz, Lewis Binford, Ian Hodder, and Mary Douglas. The journal routinely features discussions that intersect with research agendas associated with the National Science Foundation, the European Research Council, and the Wellcome Trust.

History and Development

Founded in 1959 under the auspices of the Wenner-Gren Foundation, the journal arose amid postwar expansion of area studies at centers including Columbia University, Harvard University, University of Chicago, and University of California, Berkeley. Its early editorial boards included scholars who engaged debates around structuralism championed by Claude Lévi-Strauss and processual archaeology advanced by Lewis Binford. Over subsequent decades the journal incorporated voices from postprocessual theorists such as Ian Hodder and cognitive anthropologists influenced by Noam Chomsky and Steven Pinker, as well as contributions from fieldworkers operating in regions like Amazon Rainforest, Sahara Desert, Himalayas, and Pacific Islands. Institutional shifts involved partnerships with publishers such as the University of Chicago Press and ongoing funding ties to the Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research.

Editorial Scope and Content

The journal accepts research notes, long-form articles, review essays, and discussions that cross-connect data from excavations at locales like Knossos and Qumran to ethnographies conducted in settings such as Kinshasa, Lima, Delhi, and Beijing. It hosts debates touching intellectual historians and theorists associated with Michel Foucault, Pierre Bourdieu, Edward Said, Jürgen Habermas, and Talal Asad, as well as scientific studies that reference methods used at laboratories such as Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, and Salk Institute. Special issues have addressed topics spanning human evolution (linking to research on Homo erectus, Homo neanderthalensis, Homo sapiens idaltu), cultural heritage (engaging institutions like UNESCO), and language change (drawing on work related to Noam Chomsky, William Labov, Dell Hymes).

Publication and Distribution

Published in collaboration with the University of Chicago Press, the journal circulates to subscribers including academic departments at Oxford University, Cambridge University, University of Tokyo, and Australian National University. Distribution networks connect to libraries such as the Library of Congress, the Bibliothèque nationale de France, and the Bodleian Library, and to indexing services that catalog work alongside journals like American Anthropologist, Journal of Archaeological Science, and Nature Ecology & Evolution. The journal’s editorial management has involved professional editors and editorial boards drawn from institutions including Stanford University, Yale University, Princeton University, University of Michigan, and University College London.

Reception and Impact

Scholars and institutions have cited the journal’s influence in shaping debates initiated by figures like Claude Lévi-Strauss and Marshall Sahlins, and in providing venues for methodological exchange between proponents of processual archaeology tied to Lewis Binford and postprocessual approaches linked to Ian Hodder. It has been recognized in award contexts connected to the American Anthropological Association and has influenced museum curatorial practices at the Smithsonian Institution and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Critics and proponents alike have debated its editorial choices in venues associated with Science, The New York Times, and specialist conferences convened by the Royal Anthropological Institute and the Society for American Archaeology.

Notable Articles and Contributions

The journal has published landmark pieces that engaged with topics associated with Franz Boas and Margaret Mead-era debates, evolutionary frameworks tied to Charles Darwin and Alfred Russel Wallace, and methodological innovations used by researchers at sites like Laetoli and Dmanisi. Notable contributions have intersected with theoretical work by Clifford Geertz, empirical syntheses akin to those of Lewis Binford, and interdisciplinary conversations involving scholars linked to the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History, the Smithsonian Institution, and the Wenner-Gren Foundation. Special thematic issues have foregrounded conservation policies discussed at UNESCO meetings, repatriation debates connected to cases like Kennewick Man, and debates on language extinction referencing research by Noam Chomsky and William Labov.

Category:Anthropology journals