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Proposal: Anthropology

Going through the Science sites, I realised there is no Anthropology.SE (yet!).

These are some related ones, though. I think it's impossible NOT to have some overlapping, so the discussion is both about scope and potential audiences. For example: Cognitive Sciences, Linguistics and Biology.

Then, there are smaller sites / sites in progress like Forensic Sciences, Open Science, Science Educators, etc, which are related as well, but I believe have very specific communities.

All in all, I believe anthropology has enough specificity to allow for its own site. In regards to methods, for example, but also scope. It's not sociology, it's not history. It's different.

Something I still haven't really elaborated much is the role archaeology could have in this new site. I imagine, considering that the potential pool of users for anthropology is not the most impressive thing in the world (I would argue lots of people are interested in it, though, and most are not necessarily related to academia), that we could benefit enormously from archaeology questions. And if they generate enough motion, those users could move on to creating another site for the field.

What do you think?

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  • This proposal has been deleted.. I too would like to have the anthropology SE. Maybe it's a matter of synchronization. Perhaps soon we can have a new proposal and fulfill requirements.
    – nilon
    May 31, 2017 at 13:23
  • The Area 51's process + SE's unwelcoming nature is to blame. What motivation is there for older experts to join a new forum?
    – Rubellite Fae
    Apr 30, 2018 at 16:01

1 Answer 1

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I propose that biological anthropology questions be asked in already available related SEs (Paleontology, genetics, forensics, etc). These should cover questions bio anth can provide answers for, but also methodological questions.

Archaeology, IMO, should be a new separate SE and cover 11.7KYA ～ Late Antiquity. This is quite different than what is covered in the History SE. Again, this should cover prehistoric events as well as methodologies.

Linguistics should have it's own SE as well, IMO.

Finally, one could make a case for a cultural anthropology SE, however, there are a few issues. One, your userbase will take quite a while to build up. Two, I fear several methodological questions will result in fights over sociological vs anthropological techniques, their virtues, and their problems. Three, cultural anthropology isn't, for the most part, able to study remote peoples as it used to be able to. The frontiers of cultural anth are cyber cultures and activist anthropology, both which fit elsewhere in the SE network,

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