Academia News

Harvard Anthropologist's Report Accuses Discipline of Abandoning Objectivity for Political Advocacy

Joseph Henrich, a Harvard biological anthropologist, released a 107-page report asserting that cultural anthropology has suffered a severe decline in scholarly standards due to the prioritization of political advocacy over rigorous, objective research. The report, part of a broader critique of humanities scholarship, claims that the field is in crisis, evidenced by dwindling enrollments, departmental splits, and a suppression of dissenting views. Henrich argues that the American Anthropological Association has driven this shift by embedding moral positions into scholarly discourse, leading to a toxic intellectual climate. While Henrich advocates for a return to replicable methods and open debate, the American Anthropological Association has rejected the findings, labeling the critique a political attack and defending the current state of the discipline.