I don’t think it counts as dark side epistemology. As one of the anthropologists opposing the change was quoted in the Psychology Today article as saying, it’s more a matter of cultural anthropology coming to see itself as a kind of esoteric journalism than a rejection of empirical data as such. It’s also part of an ongoing intradisciplinary conflict between cultural anthropology and the other three fields of anthropology: archaeology, biological anthropology, and linguistics. The Chronicle of Higher Education article is a little clearer and less polemical than the PT blog cited, though the author has his own credibility problems.
It’s entirely possible that the end result will be the Society for Anthropological Sciences seceding, and the AAA won’t be the professional association for anthropologists anymore. It’s already the case that archaeologists and biological anthropologists rarely attend the AAA annual meetings.
I don’t think it counts as dark side epistemology. As one of the anthropologists opposing the change was quoted in the Psychology Today article as saying, it’s more a matter of cultural anthropology coming to see itself as a kind of esoteric journalism than a rejection of empirical data as such. It’s also part of an ongoing intradisciplinary conflict between cultural anthropology and the other three fields of anthropology: archaeology, biological anthropology, and linguistics. The Chronicle of Higher Education article is a little clearer and less polemical than the PT blog cited, though the author has his own credibility problems.
It’s entirely possible that the end result will be the Society for Anthropological Sciences seceding, and the AAA won’t be the professional association for anthropologists anymore. It’s already the case that archaeologists and biological anthropologists rarely attend the AAA annual meetings.