Anthropologists often call attention to the problems posed by social inequality, but academic anthropology also reproduces many of the very inequalities that its practitioners work to critique. Past research on US academic hiring networks has shown evidence of systematic inequality and hierarchy, attributed in significant part to the influence of academic prestige, which is not necessarily a reflection of merit or academic productivity. Using anthropology departments’ websites, we gathered information on all tenured and tenure‐track faculty in PhD‐granting anthropology programs in the United States, totaling 1,918 individuals in all. For each faculty member, we noted their current institution and PhD‐granting institution, which we treated as a “tie” between those academic programs. With those data, we applied both statistical and social network analysis (SNA) methods to explain variation in faculty placement as well as the network's overall structure. In this article, we report on our findings and discuss how they can be used to help rethink academic reproduction in American anthropology. [academia, anthropology, social inequality, hiring networks, social network analysis]

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A recent archaeological survey demonstrates that one of the most durable of all forms of pre-Columbian landscape transformation, Amazonian Dark Earths (ADE; soils formed by pre-Columbian settlement), are widespread along the course of the Madeira River, Central Amazonia, Brazil. We hypothesize that processes of crop cultivation and management by human populations today in landscapes that were intensively transformed during the preColumbian period will diverge from those in environments where human agency has not left such a heavy footprint. In order to test this hypothesis, we compare bitter manioc fields, homegardens and secondary forests on ADE with those on non-anthropogenic soils along the lower and middle Madeira River. We demonstrate that crop species and landrace populations diverge on anthropogenic and non-anthropogenic soils as a result of the interaction between human selection and management, soil physical and chemical properties, and plant responses over time. Hence, crop species selection and abundance and therefore agrobiodiversity is contingent on anthropogenic soils in Central Amazonia.

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For millennia, people have relied on human excrement or “night soil” as a source of agricultural fertilization. Following industrialization, however, the use of this resource became considerably limited. In this article, we provide a brief overview of the historical use of human excreta for agricultural application at varying scales of management, from early Amazonian farming middens to regional networks of night soil trade in imperial China. We then draw attention to the factors that led to the discontinuation of night soil usage during industrialization, placing focus on the “culture of flushing” that developed along with the adoption of the hydraulic sanitation system. To conclude, we consider how improved management of human excreta in the contemporary world can have important consequences for agricultural production, despite the ongoing challenges posed by what Marxian scholars refer to as the metabolic rift—the disruption of the earth’s socio-ecological cycles brought on by industrial capitalism.

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known as Amazonian Dark Earths (ADE), are environments with elevated soil fertility that can produce crops that otherwise yield poorly on the leached and highly acidic Oxisols that dominate much of the basin. While ADE sites near urban centers often attract commercial horticultural production of nutrient-demanding exotics, these soils are also considered possibly unique reservoirs of endemic agrobiodiversity because of their relationship to pre-Columbian indigenous occupation. Through botanical surveys and interviews with smallholder farmers, this study compared useful species richness, proportion of exotic species, and market orientation of farms situated on ADE and non-anthropogenic Oxisols in the municipality of Borba in Central Brazilian Amazonia. Species richness was similar on Amazonian Dark Earth and Oxisol farms (19.6 spp vs. 18.3 spp); however, ADE farms showed significantly higher proportions of exotic species (39% vs. 26%; p=0.025). Furthermore, ADE farms in Borba demonstrated significantly higher market orientation (61.0% vs. 47.3%; p=0.028), likely a result of the advantage of Amazonian Dark Earths for production of crops that are nutrient-demanding or pH-sensitive crops that have higher values in the nearby regional market of Manaus.Riqueza de espécies úteis, proporção de espécies exóticas e orientação para o mercado em sítios sobre Terra Preta de Índio e Latossolos em Borba, Amazonas, Brasil Solos antrópicos da Amazônia, conhecidos como terra preta de índio (ADE), são ambientes de alta fertilidade capazes de sustentar a produção de cultivos que não se desenvolvem bem nos latossolos ácidos e pobres da bacia Amazônica. Sítios em ADE próximos a centros urbanos são frequentemente utilizados para a produção comercial de cultivos exóticos, embora esses solos sejam também considerados reservatórios de agrobiodiversidade endêmica devido à sua relação com a ocupação indígena na época Pré-colombiana. Utilizando dados de inventários florísticos e de entrevistas com pequenos agricultores, esse estudo comparou a riqueza de espécies úteis, a proporção de espécies exóticas e a orientação para o mercado em sítios sobre ADE e sobre latossolos no município de Borba, Amazonas, Brasil. A riqueza de espécies é similar em ADE e em latossolos (19,6 spp. vs. 18,3 spp.), entretanto os agricultores manejam em ADE uma maior proporção de espécies exóticas (39% vs. 26%; p=0,025). Além disso, os sítios em ADE têm maior orientação para o mercado (61% vs. 47,3%), o que está provavelmente relacionado à vantagem que ADE oferece para a produção de cultivos exigentes em nutrientes ou sensíveis à acidez do solo, que são mais valorizados no mercado regional de Manaus.