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Robert Borofsky
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. CareerRobert 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:
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:
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]
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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