For much of my work, archival records provide important context for interpreting the documents I receive under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA).  This context takes different forms in different circumstances.  These archival documents provide information on the personal or daily lives of individuals of interest, on interactions with other anthropologists, on the larger social …

+ Read More Listmania: A Few Thoughts on One Page From a 6,500 Cubic Feet Collection

All anthropologists should consider using archives in their work.  When I was in my 20s and working as a contract archaeologist on cultural resource management projects, I used state archives to get information on the land we worked on, and when doing ethnographic fieldwork in Egypt in 1989-90, I combed collections at the Egyptian Ministry …

+ Read More Anthropologists in the Archives: A Brief Guide for the Perplexed

While working through document collections in dozens of university and governmental archives, online FOIA document repositories, and through Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests, I have amassed a collection of letters from anthropologists and other scholars corresponding with the CIA. Sometimes scholars write asking for reports, maps, or other documents they hope can be released …

+ Read More FOIA Document: 1980 CIA Recruitment Pitch Claims No Ethical Issues for CIA Anthropologists

At some point during the last quarter century I wandered away from doing ethnographic fieldwork and pursued archival and Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) anthropological research. There were no clear reasons for the shift. I suppose that in hindsight this change of focus appears linked with being a new professor, with then young children who …

+ Read More On Using Archives and Freedom of Information Act for Anthropological Research