Lines that divide

Abstract

Is there a distinctly ‘Canadian’ anthropological tradition? This paper reviews recent literature that addresses this question, tracing two major threads in the history of anthropological research in Canada: the prominence of themes of aboriginality in the Canadian anthropological context dating back to early Americanist projects associated with Franz Boas; and the development of applied anthropological practice in Canada as a kind of subfield specializing in the documentation and mediation of Aboriginal-state relations. These facets provide context for the works of Regna Darnell, Michael Asch, David Howes, and others who specifically address the ‘Canadian anthropology’ question. Common to their arguments is attention to the relationship between public and scholarly attitudes indicative of an unassuming ‘Canadianness,’ and state codifications of a “bicentric” (Howes 2006) national identity in initiatives such as the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples. Whether and how these state-sanctioned productions speak to widely held public attitudes becomes central in conceptualizations of a reflexive Canadian anthropology both distinct and valuable for theoretical insights it offers the wider discipline. Paradoxically, in these works we find Canadian anthropology’s strength is in its inherent tendency to evade any such hard and fast classification.