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Robert Borofsky

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Robert Borofsky
Hawaii Volcano National Park (2022)
Born1944
NationalityAmerican
SpouseNancy Schildt (m. 1973)
Children2 (Amelia and Robyn)
Grandchildren4 (Yinale, Charlie, Caleb, and Tadd)
FieldsPublic anthropology, Cultural anthropology, Pacific Studies
Retired2020

Robert Borofsky is an American anthropologist specializing in public anthropology and the Pacific.  A number of his works continue to be read in college curricula today.  Before retiring in 2020, Borofsky concentrated on undergraduate education as a Professor of Anthropology at Hawaii Pacific University.[1] In 2007, he initiated the California Series in Public Anthropology, successfully editing the series for over a decade.[2] Now retired, he directs the Center for a Public Anthropology[3] focusing on the Center’s Public Anthropology Project[4] which annually involves thousands of introductory anthropology students from across Canada and the United States.

Career

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Robert Borofsky received his Ph.D. from the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa.[5] Along with his wife and a daughter, he spent 41 months – from 1977-81 – on the coral atoll of Pukapuka carrying out field research for his doctoral dissertation examining Pukapukan and anthropological conceptions of the past which, in revised form, was published as Making History: Pukapukan and Anthropological Conceptions of Knowledge (1987).[6]

In addition, Borofsky is the author or editor of a number of other books including, Remembrance of Pacific Pasts: An Invitation to Remake History (2000, open access 2020)[7], Yanomami: The Fierce Controversy and What We Can Learn From It (2005)[8], Why a Public Anthropology (2011)[9], An Anthropology of Anthropology: Is it Time to Shift Paradigms (open access 2019)[10] and Revitalizing Anthropology: Let’s Focus the Field on Benefiting Others.[11]

A sense of these books’ impact can be seen in the praise they have garnered from prominent intellectual figures. In respect to Remembrance of Pacific Pasts, Claude Lévi-Strauss writes:

"History is always interpretation.  The French Revolution as told by an aristocrat and by a sansculotte are not the same.  The problem is how to bring these different views together in a way that makes sense of the whole.  Rob Borofsky wonderfully succeeds at this difficult task. He turns widely different points of view into an asset.  The narrative ceases being linear. We have instead a multidimensional history that the reader must approach from several angles and the meaning of which, like that of a musical piece, is apprehended globally.  Remembrance of Pacific Pasts is a very impressive and important work."[12] 

Natalie Zemon-Davis states the book “is brimming over with new ideas about how history can be found, rethought, understood, and told . . . Rob Borofsky’s edited volume is multicentered, dialogic history at its best.”[13]

Paul Farmer views Why a Public Anthropology? as “a gem of a resource for anyone interested in anthropology . . . Borofsky’s final message is one of transformation: he calls on those both within the discipline and without to practice anthropology in service of the public—to not simply “do no harm,” but to do good.” [14][15] Noam Chomsky writes “This provocative study sets ambitious goals for what might be achieved by a public anthropology and offers ways to carry forward a project that could be far-reaching in its consequences.”[16][17]

In respect to An Anthropology of Anthropology, David Graeber writes “Anthropologists have written almost nothing about conditions of work, patronage, funding, institutional hierarchy in the academy—that is, the power relations under which anthropological writing is actually produced. Rob Borofsky is one of the few who’s had the requisite courage to do so.” [18]  Nancy Scheper-Hughes asserts, “Borofsky’s book is brimming with ideas for redefining anthropology. He shows close up through case studies how the institutional structures of the academy have controlled and restricted anthropology as an intellectual discipline. He asks tough questions about individual accountability, ethics, and self-interests. . . . I recommend this incisive and valuable book to anyone who cares about the future of our field. Once you read it, you will see why.”[19]

George Marcus considers Revitalizing Anthropology:

"an extraordinary and seminal intervention/contribution in Rob Borofsky’s career-long insistence on making anthropology literally beneficial to others. He taps into the spirit and motivating impulses of current graduate student projects in several locations globally. In so doing, he provides a much-needed resource for teaching introductory graduate program seminars, especially in the leading departments of the classic metropole.”[20]

Robert Borofsky coined the now widely cited term public anthropology, first for the University of California book series he edited and then for the field itself.  In 2018, Borofsky suggested four strategies that  collectively emphasized public anthropology’s paradigm-shifting intent. [21]

  • Benefitting others. Moving beyond the currently espoused “do no harm” ethos to striving to benefit others, especially the broader society that supports anthropological research.
  • Fostering alternative forms of faculty accountability. Moving beyond judging faculty primarily by the number of academic publications produced to emphasizing the social impact of their work.
  • Transparency. Not only uncovering the underlying patronage systems that dominate hiring and publishing in the discipline but also allowing other researchers to investigate how a work’s conclusions were reached—thereby offering a means to assess that work’s value and validity.  Justice Louis Brandeis famously states: “Publicity is justly commended as a remedy for social and industrial diseases. Sunlight is said to be the best of disinfectants; electric light the most efficient policeman.”[22]
  • Collaborating with others. Moving beyond primarily working alone to working with others beyond the academy to facilitate significant change.

In line with these strategies, Borofsky played a significant role during the Yanomami Blood Controversy – a controversy that attracted world-wide attention (see Borofsky 2005:3) – in getting American universities to return the Yanomami blood samples they held in cold storage.[23]  With Shawn Rodriguez, he produced a set of online introductory anthropology lectures that Vimeo indicates were played more than 30,000 times.[24]   For several years, Borofsky has worked with Altmetrics.com[25], highlighting anthropologists whose publications attract the broader public’s attention – particularly in news outlets and policy documents from around the world (see [26] and especially [27]).   In a rare move for an anthropologist, in 2024 he published his fieldnotes – numbering over 12,000 pages – on the internet for Pukapukans and others to read and comment on.[28]

Books

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See Also

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References

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  1. ^ "Dr. Borofsky's Retirement – Center for a Public Anthropology". Retrieved 2024-12-31.
  2. ^ "Robert Borofsky". www.hpu.edu. Retrieved 2024-12-31.
  3. ^ "Center for a Public Anthropology – Encouraging the anthropological community to address public problems in public ways". Retrieved 2024-12-31.
  4. ^ "Public Anthropology | Login Page". www.publicanth.net. Retrieved 2024-12-31.
  5. ^ "University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa", Wikipedia, 2024-12-25, retrieved 2024-12-31
  6. ^ Borofsky, Robert (1987). Making History: Pukapukan and Anthropological Constructions of Knowledge. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-39648-6.
  7. ^ "Wayback Machine". scholarspace.manoa.hawaii.edu. Archived from the original on 2024-12-27. Retrieved 2024-12-31.
  8. ^ "Yanomami by Rob Borofsky - Paper". University of California Press. Retrieved 2024-12-31.
  9. ^ 2011  WHY A PUBLIC ANTHROPOLOGY?  Center for a Public Anthropology (Temporarily Out of Print)
  10. ^ "An Anthropology of Anthropology". books.publicanthropology.org. Retrieved 2024-12-31.
  11. ^ "Revitalizing Anthropology". books.publicanthropology.org. Retrieved 2024-12-31.
  12. ^ "Wayback Machine". scholarspace.manoa.hawaii.edu. Archived from the original on 2024-12-27. Retrieved 2024-12-31.
  13. ^ "Wayback Machine". scholarspace.manoa.hawaii.edu. Archived from the original on 2024-12-27. Retrieved 2024-12-31.
  14. ^ 2011  WHY A PUBLIC ANTHROPOLOGY?  Center for a Public Anthropology (Temporarily Out of Print)
  15. ^ https://publicanthropology.net/static/pdf/WHY_A_PUBLIC_ANTHROPOLOGY.pdf
  16. ^ 2011  WHY A PUBLIC ANTHROPOLOGY?  Center for a Public Anthropology (Temporarily Out of Print)
  17. ^ https://publicanthropology.net/static/pdf/WHY_A_PUBLIC_ANTHROPOLOGY.pdf
  18. ^ https://books.publicanthropology.org/an-anthropology-of-anthropology.pdf
  19. ^ https://books.publicanthropology.org/an-anthropology-of-anthropology.pdf
  20. ^ https://books.publicanthropology.org/revitalizing-anthropology.pdf
  21. ^ "About – Center for a Public Anthropology". Retrieved 2024-12-31.
  22. ^ Brandeis, Louis (February 20, 2009). Other People's Money And How The Bankers Use It. ISBN 1438285264, page 92
  23. ^ "Returning Yanomami Blood Samples – Center for a Public Anthropology". Retrieved 2024-12-31.
  24. ^ "Anthropology Videos – Center for a Public Anthropology". Retrieved 2024-12-31.
  25. ^ "Homepage". Altmetric. Retrieved 2024-12-31.
  26. ^ "Metrics Project – Center for a Public Anthropology". Retrieved 2024-12-31.
  27. ^ "Public Anthropology Metrics". metrics.publicanthropology.org. Retrieved 2024-12-31.
  28. ^ "Detailed Outline – Center for a Public Anthropology". Retrieved 2024-12-31.
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