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Robert Borofsky

Robert Borofsky
Born1944
NationalityAmerican
SpouseNancy Schildt (m. 1973)
Children2 (Amelia and Robyn)
Grandchildren4 (Yinale, Charlie, Caleb, and Tadd)
FieldsPublic anthropology, Cultural anthropology, Pacific Studies
Retired2020

Robert Borofsky is an American anthropologist specializing in public anthropology and the Pacific.  A number of his works continue to be read in college anthropology curriculums today.  Until recently, Borofsky was a Professor of Anthropology at Hawaii Pacific University and the founding editor of the California Series in Public Anthropology. [1][2].  Now retired, he remains the director of the Center for a Public Anthropology[3] and webmaster for the Center’s Public Anthropology Project.[4]

Career

Robert Borofsky received his Ph.D. from the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa.[5] Along with his wife and daughter, he spent 41 months – from 1977-81 – on the coral atoll of Pukapuka carrying out field research on Pukapukan and anthropological conceptions of the past for his doctoral dissertation, subsequently published as Making History. Recently he has placed his fieldnotes, numbering over 12,000 pages, on the internet for Pukapukans and others to read and comment on.[6]

Borofsky is the author or editor of a number of books including Making History: Pukapukan and Anthropological Conceptions of Knowledge (1987) [7], Remembrance of Pacific Pasts: An Invitation to Remake History (2000, open access 2020)[8], Yanomami: The Fierce Controversy and What We Can Learn From It (2005) [9], Why a Public Anthropology (2010)[10], and An Anthropology of Anthropology: Is it Time to Shift Paradigms (open access 2019)[11].

A sense of these books’ impact can be seen in the praise they have garnered from prominent intellectual figures.  Claude Lévi-Strauss calls Remembrance of Pacific Pasts “a very impressive and important work;” [12]   Natalie Zemon-Davis terms it “multicentered, dialogic history at its best.” [13] Paul Farmer views Why a Public Anthropology? “as “a gem of a resource for anyone interested in anthropology . . . Borofsky’s final message is one of transformation: he calls on those both within the discipline and without to practice anthropology in service of the public—to not simply “do no harm,” but to do good.” [14] And in respect to An Anthropology of Anthropology, David Graeber writes “Anthropologists have written almost nothing about conditions of work, patronage, funding, institutional hierarchy in the academy—that is, the power relations under which anthropological writing is actually produced. Rob Borofsky is one of the few who’s had the requisite courage to do so.” [15] During the Yanomami Blood Controversy, Borofsky played a significant role in drawing American universities to return to the Yanomami the blood samples they held in cold storage. [16]

Robert Borofsky coined the term public anthropology, first for the University of California book series he edited and then for the field itself.  In the introduction to the Center for a Public Anthropology’s website, Borofsky suggests four strategies that  collectively emphasize public anthropology’s paradigm-shifting intent.[17]

  • Benefitting others. Moving beyond the currently espoused “do no harm” ethos to striving to benefit others, especially the broader society that supports anthropological research.
  • Fostering alternative forms of faculty accountability. Moving beyond judging faculty primarily by the number of academic publications produced to emphasizing the social impact of their work.
  • Transparency. Not only uncovering the underlying patronage systems that dominate hiring and publishing in the discipline but also allowing other researchers to investigate how a work’s conclusions were reached—thereby offering a means to assess that work’s value and validity.  Justice Louis Brandeis famously states: “Publicity is justly commended as a remedy for social and industrial diseases. Sunlight is said to be the best of disinfectants; electric light the most efficient policeman.”
  • Collaborating with others. Moving beyond primarily working alone to working with others beyond the academy to facilitate significant change.

Publications

  • Making History: Pukapukan and Anthropological Constructions of Knowledge, (1990).
  • Yanomami: The Fierce Controversy and What We Can Learn from It, (2004).
  • An Anthropology of Anthropology: Is It Time to Shift Paradigms, (2019).

[18][19][20]

References

  1. ^ "Robert Borofsky", Wikipedia, 2024-04-21, retrieved 2024-12-27
  2. ^ https://www.kudoboard.com/boards/0cHxNAIa#view : A Real Mensch: Aloha On Your Retirement Dr. Rob Borofsky
  3. ^ https://www.publicanthropology.org  Center for a Public Anthropology
  4. ^ https://www.publicanth.net/login The Public Anthropology Project
  5. ^ https://www.hpu.edu/faculty/cla/robert-borofsky.html Hawaii Pacific University, Robert Borofsky
  6. ^ https://www.publicanthropology.org/detailed-outline/ Pukapukan Fieldnotes
  7. ^ ISBN 0-521-39648-4 Cambridge University Press.  https://books.google.com/books/about/Making_History.html?id=kP5la8DMWGsC
  8. ^ ISBN 0-08248-2301-X  University of Hawaii Press.  https://scholarspace.manoa.hawaii.edu/server/api/core/bitstreams/8a6c5dc4-f49e-47ff-ade4-83a0c9e43f10/content
  9. ^ ISBN: 9780520244047 University of California Press.  https://www.ucpress.edu/books/yanomami/paper
  10. ^ ISBN 9678-0-615 50860-3.  Center for a Public Anthropology.
  11. ^ ISBN 9768-1-7322241-3-1. Center for a Public Anthropology. https://books.publicanthropology.org/an-anthropology-of-anthropology.html
  12. ^ https://scholarspace.manoa.hawaii.edu/server/api/core/bitstreams/8a6c5dc4-f49e-47ff-ade4-83a0c9e43f10/content, Claude Lévi-Strauss, page 11
  13. ^ https://scholarspace.manoa.hawaii.edu/server/api/core/bitstreams/8a6c5dc4-f49e-47ff-ade4-83a0c9e43f10/content, Natalie Zemon-Davis, page 10
  14. ^ Why a Public Anthropology, Paul Farmer, page 3
  15. ^ https://books.publicanthropology.org/an-anthropology-of-anthropology.pdf, David Graeber, Endorsements
  16. ^ https://www.publicanthropology.org/returning-yanomami-blood-samples/ Returning Yanomami Blood Samples
  17. ^ https://www.publicanthropology.org/about/
  18. ^ Borofsky, Robert 1997 Cook, Lono, Obeyesekere, and Sahlins.  Current Anthropology, 38,2: 255-282
  19. ^ Vine, David (2011). ""Public Anthropology" in Its Second Decade: Robert Borofsky's Center for a Public Anthropology". American Anthropologist. 113 (2): 336–339. doi:10.1111/j.1548-1433.2011.01334.x. ISSN 1548-1433.
  20. ^ Dolan, Kylie Wong (2020-04-05). "Ep #55 Doing Right by Others: Robert Borofsky on the Value of Anthropology". The Familiar Strange. Retrieved 2024-12-27.
Quelle: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Borofsky