In response to the AAA 2021’s theme on truth and responsibility, this panel explores the relationship between truth-telling in fiction and in anthropology. What responsibility is shared by anthropologists and fiction writers in bearing witness to the social world? This panel explores imaginings and re-imaginings of the world, and deals with both practical and literary forms of “wisdom.” Panelists bring to light the influences of anthropology on fiction inspired by ethnography as well as the influences of the techniques of fiction writing on anthropological reportage and narration. Storytelling evokes truths about humanity and its past, present, and future through various media and genres, including popular culture. How can anthropologists best convey the stories we gather in our work in ways that inspire engagement and action in areas such as climate change and social injustice? This panel suggests that not only the ethnographic imagination, spurred by participant observation of social life, has the capacity to convey an understanding of the world by relating it to wider structures • so too has the fictional imagination. For anthropologists, it goes without saying that fiction is inspired by real social, political and historical events, more or less: fiction cannot be detached from society. Certainly the style and structure of a text are inspired by social and cultural contexts, as well as by the mood of the specific time period when it was composed. Relevant to this discussion is Oscar Hemer’s (2012) work on fiction, truth and postmemory in relation to political transitions in South Africa and Argentina: both societies have seen the issue of truth being controversial, even the source of legal investigations into violations of human rights. Fiction was key; it was a way “to speak about the unspeakable” during apartheid in South Africa and the repressive dictatorship in Argentina. This evokes questions of responsibility. Didier Fassin (2014) points out that anthropologists discover in fiction “more compelling, more accurate, and more profound accounts of the social worlds” they study than what anthropological texts can offer. While fiction cannot simply mirror the real, Fassin goes on to say, traditional ethnography is expected to be faithful to reality -- which provides an authority with ethical and political consequences. While acknowledging overlaps between fiction and ethnography, Kirin Narayan (1999) maintains that there is still a border separating them. Karin Barber (2007) points toward the relationship between anthropology and indigenous texts, and the ways in which “people put words together to make a mark, leave a trace.” With its eclectic stance, the panel will discuss methods for the anthropological study of fictional narrative as speaking truth and bearing responsibility. This also applies to the writing up of such research, and thus an inclination to cultivate an openness to different writing genres, which includes the possibility of collaboration (in both a literal and more figurative sense), especially with fiction writers.

Anthropology into Literature: Voices from the Past, Echoes in the Present

Telling Truth to Power through Narrative: Responsibility and Imagination in Fiction and Anthropology

technical paper

Truth and Responsibility
“Truth and Responsibility” is a call to reimagine anthropology to meet the demands of the present moment. The imperative to bear witness, take action, and be held accountable to the truths we write and circulate invites us to reflect on our responsibility in reckoning with disciplinary histories, harms, and possibilities. To whom are we giving evidence and toward what ends? For whom are we writing? To whom are we accountable, and in what ways? We are thrilled to announce the theme of the 2021 AAA Annual Meeting to be held in Baltimore, MD: Truth and Responsibility.

Many consider anthropology to be a holistic social science dedicated to cross-cultural understanding as a way to reduce bigotry and more fully comprehend “what it means to be human.” Others push against this readily circulated origin story, arguing that “human” remains a highly contested, political category—evident as the presumed set of rights and protections associated with the “human” continue to be stripped away violently in the communities in which some of us live and work. Which violent histories and epistemologies must anthropologists take responsibility for in telling truth(s) about the discipline’s development? How do the dual histories of settler colonialism and slavery continue to influence anthropological thought and practices? In these political times, how can anthropologists throughout the globe work to secure a capacious, progressive vision of the human? How might movements for anti-racism, decoloniality, queer liberation, and healing such as #BlackLivesMatter, #ProtectMaunaKea, and #MeToo push a future anthropology out of the ashes of the anthropological past? Finally, what are the limits and possibilities of the anthropological imagination?

Across subfields, we find truths in patterns of human behavior, language, evolution, and cultural worlds. Industry-positioned anthropologists do this by extending the boundaries of the discipline not as an administrative solution to job shortages but as a source of intervention and knowledge production. Increasingly, anthropologists who make use of the scientific method question how status and identity help to decide which facts come to represent truth. How might quantitative researchers use our methods to identify patterned truths, and what responsibility do we hold in challenging conventional wisdom about these patterns? What responsibility do we have to both our colleagues and larger publics, to push toward increased transparency and ethical grounding in our data collection, analysis, and presentation?

Pedagogy is a key medium for the communication of anthropological truths. Which (and whose) truths are foregrounded in our curricula? What are the possibilities for a liberatory pedagogy in a precarious, “post-truth” era? Conferences, museums, organizing spaces, and classrooms are sites where pedagogy and various forms of communication can help us interrogate the performativity of truth. How might anthropologists conceive of truth performances? Might visual, aural, and choreographic performances during AAA sessions offer anthropologists alternative genres for truth-telling and truth-making that provoke discussions about responsibility?

In accordance with the urgency of the year’s theme, the questions posed in this call for papers do not have easy answers. The hope is that those who submit proposals will take up these questions and engage in collective thinking and imagining about the truths we hold, the truths we challenge, and the responsibilities we bear in co-creating a free and more equitable world. All panel proposals should have a statement about how the panel has incorporated the goals of equity, diversity, and inclusion, and/or analysis of power.

Executive Session proposals have already been selected and speak directly to the theme “Truth and Responsibility.” To practice the critical reflexivity this call for papers invites, we asked that Executive Session submissions explicitly address the diversity of session participants, such as organizational/institutional affiliation, career stage, race, ethnicity, disability, sexuality, class, religion, national identity, and gender. Proposals for Executive Sessions that demonstrated a commitment to equity and inclusion and/or a clear analysis of power (i.e. anti-imperialist, anti-white supremacist, decolonial, anti-ableist, feminist, anti-transphobic, anti-xenophobic, etc) were given priority. We are excited to be in conversation with residents of the Baltimore region and look forward to the discussions, performances, and actions generated by the dynamic group of anthropologists attending the 2021 AAA Annual Meeting.

AAA Annual Meeting 2021

“Truth and Responsibility” is a call to reimagine anthropology to meet the demands of the present moment. The imperative to bear witness, take action, and be held accountable to the truths we write and circulate invites us to reflect on our responsibility in reckoning with disciplinary histories, harms, and possibilities. To whom are we giving evidence and toward what ends? For whom are we writing? To whom are we accountable, and in what ways? We are thrilled to announce the theme of the 2021 AAA Annual Meeting to be held in Baltimore, MD: Truth and Responsibility.

Ulf Hannerz

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Anthropology into Literature: Voices from the Past, Echoes in the Present

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