Afterword. Anthropology and the interdisciplinary research

Abstract

Since the mid-nineteenth century, anthropology has focused on the “totality” of human experience in different societies, covering areas such as technology, thought, values and rituals. In doing so, anthropology has generated comparisons and exchanges with other sector-specific disciplines that deal with particular areas of human experience. In more recent years, however, comparisons between different disciplines have sometimes given rise to opposition and misunderstandings over methods of data collection and analysis, as well as over quantitative versus qualitative approaches and whether to focus on normative or diverse values. The most successful approach has been “bi-disciplinary collaboration and exchange”, creating areas of dual expertise such as medical anthropology, legal anthropology, environmental anthropology and urban anthropology. International literature on the subject has also focused on the organisation of multidisciplinary university departments and international projects, which are now almost exclusively of this type. This has sometimes generated innovative and creative conceptions of a new “trans-disciplinarity”. The essays in this special issue mainly deal with cases of relationships between anthropological research and various natural sciences, ranging from eco-biology to medical and environmental sciences. They also carefully document the significant challenges in achieving equal and non-hierarchical exchanges between disciplines for mutual enrichment.