AN in Focus This new online feature of Anthropology News is a one-stop place to find published AN commentaries and supplementary materials focusing on thematic issues relevant to the discipline and practice of anthropology, and the use of anthropological perspectives in addressing critical social issues.

Technologies of Reproduction

Over the past several months in AN, writers have discussed how state, religious and medical institutions are shaping discourses and practices that mediate between women’s bodies and technologies of birth. From recent legal decisions that designate fetuses as citizens to developments in “touch” haptic software for obstetric fetal ultrasound, these anthropologists show how new technologies, often marketed by private corporations and championed by activists, can bring women, their bodies and populations increasingly under the control of systems of discursive and institutional power. At the same time, scholars point out how old reproductive technologies such as adoption can still have value even if at times ignored by national population experts, who might, such as has occurred in Peru, administer forced sterilizations instead. In this series, writers have considered the ways in which institutional and social pressures incite women to conceive or practice contraception, to test or to avoid testing, to give birth in a medical setting or under the care of a midwife, to abort or carry a fetus to term.

AN Commentaries / Other News Stories / Reproductive Technology Sites / Reproductive Rights Advocacy / Research Institutes / Reproductive Health Professional Resources / Reproductive Health Policy

Intelligence-Scholarship Programs

The Pat Roberts Intelligence Scholars Program, a government-funded initiative designed to recruit new analysts with critical skills into the US intelligence community, has sparked heated debate in a number of media outlets. These debates not only evoke historical examples and ethical dilemmas, but commentators seek further response from readers. The comments below reflect the views of the commentators; their publication does not signify endorsement by the AAA. Send your comments in under 400 words to Stacy Lathrop.

AN Commentaries and News / Other News Reports and Op-Eds
Policy Resources / AAA Professional Codes of Conduct
Ethics Resources / Relevant Resolutions in the History of AAA
Other Resources

Change and Continuities in Portraying Heritage

Heritage is a variously used concept, one of increasing significance to the field of anthropology, as well as communities, organizations and policymakers across the globe. In April 2005, the Society for Applied Anthropology convened in Santa Fe, New Mexico, with the theme of “Heritage, Environment & Tourism,” and in November for the 104th annual meeting, the AAA will meet under the theme “Bringing the Past into the Present” in Washington DC, perhaps indicating a hope to integrate anthropological research about heritage. With this in mind, AN invited anthropologists studying “heritage” to contribute commentaries and research reports about the different ways heritage is thought about and presented.

Introductions to Portraying Heritage AN Series
AN Commentaries / Related Resources

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