Contesting Anglo-American Anthropological Hegemony in Publication

Gordon Mathews

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DOI: 10.2190/WR.16.3-4.i

Abstract

This article explores the situation of non-native-English-speaking anthropologists in an increasingly globalizing and English-hegemonic academic world. I first discuss "the audit culture" and how it has shaped the contemporary academic world in terms of publication. I then examine the nature of academic knowledge in terms of the sciences and the humanities, and explore the differences between these different kinds of endeavors in terms of their production of global knowledge. I then consider anthropology in particular, and look at the nature and politics of language usage within the discipline. Finally, I examine the strategies that anthropologists in non-English-language societies use in order to convey their findings outside the reach of "the audit culture," and consider the implications of this for anthropology at large in a new era of globalization. Can Anglo-American hegemony be ended? Certainly not at the low point of the present, but perhaps this day is coming.

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