Bridging anthropology and its archives: an analysis from the Smithsonian's National Anthropological Archives

Abstract

Much has been written about the need to open up archives as part of the decolonial turn and decolonizing methodologies. What does this look like in practice for anthropology? Despite increasing interest in archives and ‘the archival turn’ among anthropologists, our study at the National Anthropological Archives (NAA) found that anthropologists who use archives in their work lack familiarity with organizational principles and histories that would help them navigate and gain access to these records, as well as critique them. Beyond reporting this recent research, we posit that the disconnect between archives and anthropology is not isolated to the NAA or the US, but is pervasive in the discipline. In sharing this work, we hope to inspire other similar institutional moves and to promote archival education and scholarly engagement in anthropology and its training programmes.

Attitudes and uses of archival materials among science-based anthropologists

“…In 2017, the NAA began a 3-year funded grant from the National Science Foundation, “Re-aligning Archival Practice and Anthropological Needs: Improving Data Discovery at the National Anthropological Archives” (#1627066) that sought to increase the discovery and use of anthropological collections, taking into account the needs of both researchers and repository archivists (see a fuller description of the wider project in Anthropology Today (Marsh et al 2021 ) . The project was carried out in two phases: (1) an environmental scan and semi-structured interviews with NAA Users, and (2) a national survey with key user groups identified in phase one.…”