The State of the University: An Anthropologist’s Perspective

Editor’s Note: The following is a speech delivered by Professor Elizabeth Weiss of San Jose State University at a meeting of the California Association of Scholars on March 16, 2023. It has been edited prior to publication.

Recent reports from Texas Tech University, Stanford University, and the University of North Carolina show promising signs that universities are beginning to move toward more neutral ground regarding diversity, inclusion, and equity requirements. Heterodox Academy has also published a recent op-ed by Musa al-Gharbi, in which he documented a decrease in “woke” research.

Yet, here in the trenches, it looks very different. Anthropology, as a field, is continuing down its destructive path. My university—San Jose State University (SJSU)—and many others like it are doubling down on a woke agenda. Furthermore, even when universities take approaches that seem to support academic freedom, like adopting the Chicago Principles, rarely do they take any action to actually protect professors and students from social justice warriors. SJSU had adopted the Chicago Principles, yet it still retaliated against me for my views. Thus, I am currently suing the university for this breach of academic freedom and freedom of speech.

Let me give you some other examples. In anthropology,  the onslaught of removing materials for study is ramping up. Repatriation and reburial laws that were written to repatriate human remains, sacred objects, associated funerary objects, and items of cultural patrimony to lineal descendants and “culturally affiliated tribes”—a vague term that sometimes just means that the tribe lives in the same area that the materials were found in, but that, initially, was supposed to be determined through a variety of sources—are being blatantly misused, and the universities are breaking laws (but no one is willing to go after them).

For instance, the term “sacred” is being expanded to include everything from garbage to European artifacts, such as the sixteenth-century Spanish breastplate being claimed by the Graton Rancheria tribe in Marin County, California from the University of California, Berkeley’s collections. These items are slated for reburial, whereas the law specifically states that it applies only to the above-mentioned categories. Universities are repatriating everything, and by doing so, they are breaking the law. They are doing this because they don’t want to be called colonialists or racists. Furthermore, anthropologists want to continue with their careers, and if they are collaborating with tribes, these concessions—and many others—are necessary.

Animal remains, even from animals who have just died, are also being claimed for burial. When the Los Angeles County puma, known as P-22, died a few months ago, scientists wanted to study this animal, who had been tracked for years, to see how it dealt with living in an urban environment. They sought to understand the pressures these animals face and to improve their chances of survival. Yet, tribes in the LA area, such as the Chumash, stopped scientific research by arguing that P-22’s body should be returned, untouched, to the ancestral lands where he spent his life so he can be honored with a traditional burial. (What is a traditional burial for a puma?) P-22 has now been buried—the data are gone, and the impetus of this action on the tribes’ part is based on repatriation laws, which anthropologists supported.

Across the pond, Scottish anthropologists are questioning the use of the term “mummy” because it dehumanizes mummies! This should not be surprising, since at the academic level—in the journals—terms like “crania” and “skull” have been said to be offensive. Those collaborating with Indians should avoid these terms! Furthermore, no photos of bones (and of some artifacts) are being accepted in flagship archaeology journals, such as American Antiquity.

[Related: “Anthropology in Ruins”]

Just a few months ago, I submitted an abstract to two conferences: the Society for American Archaeology (a couple of years ago it deplatformed a talk that I gave, but I thought that I would see how the land currently lies) and the Society for California Archaeology, only to be rejected by both! My controversial abstract was a proposal to talk about preserving x-rays and assessing the reach of repatriation laws, like the California Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act, known as CalNAGPRA.

In the abstract, I outlined the steps I had already taken to try to access x-rays for which a tribe had once given its “blessings,” questioned whether x-rays fall under repatriation laws—I would say they don’t—and considered how to reach a compromise (such as, perhaps, scanning the x-rays and keeping them in a digital form while the tribes take the films). At my own university, the x-rays will most likely be burned, and no scans are planned. Thus, regarding repatriation and reburials, there has been a complete abdication of duty as anthropologists accept all claims for repatriation, no questions asked.

Unfortunately, the mainstream media plays a role in the hysteria over the curation and study of skeletal remains, such as the New York Times’ recent coverage on black cemeteries. In its reporting, one would think that only black and Indian burial grounds were developed over, whereas this is clearly not the case. Most burial grounds throughout prehistory and history have been forgotten or lost. The only real preservation is through the study of the remains or through sites that are protected by historic preservation acts. You have to remember that, over the course of millennia, millions of people died each year all throughout the populated world. In many cases people were buried (but not in all cases), and, thus, the earth is covered with burials that have been lost.

Then, of course, there’s also the NYT’s credulous coverage of the residential school burials, in which it tried to trump them up as clandestine burials of murdered children rather than state the obvious: children who died were given Christian burials (and sometimes a mix of Christian and Indigenous burials), the wooden crosses rotted away, and, over time, some of these sites were abandoned. This happened to the teachers, priests, and other residents who died there too.

I now move on to the state of the university with a focus on SJSU. At my university, we got a new president. In her opening speech at the beginning of this semester, she emphasized that to proceed and progress we all need to move in the same direction—in lockstep, of course—toward diversity, inclusion, and equity (DIE). She made sure to highlight her own minority status and mention that she came from humble beginnings—although her statement that she never had to worry about missing a bus or having her car not start to get to work or class belies her narrative. She is dedicated to promoting DIE—more so than any previous SJSU presidents.

Almost daily, I receive emails about safe spaces—not for students, but for faculty. The LGBTQ+ Writing and RSCA (Research, Scholarship, and Creative Activity) Support Group announcement, for example, asked, “Are you interested in a safe, supportive place to share writing or RSCA projects that are in the works? If so, please join us for the LGBTQ+ RSCA and Writing Support Group!” And the provost called on us to create “Identity-Based Spaces” in which faculty can “strive to create a campus community … free from systemic and cultural barriers to academic and professional success”.

[Related: “Hair Today, Gone Tomorrow”]

The most recent dean search includes a finalist whose curriculum vitae contains more woke titles than the Berkeley library. He’s also a preacher, black, and gay—all traits he made front and center in his application materials. I think we all know by now that religiosity is fine to the Left if it doesn’t come from white Christians. In the open forum part of his job talk, he made no mention of research (beyond surveys) and focused on DIE. He maligned Americans by saying that they are the least generous people and are apathetic to the problems of others, but research has consistently shown that Americans donate more to charities (even when weighted for income) and spend more time volunteering than people of any other nation.

But it doesn’t stop at these new hires. Throughout our university, there are Title IX posters featuring a professor who was hired about ten years ago and who played a key role in helping to start the HonorsX program (which is not really an honors program at all, but rather a program to further indoctrinate students by focusing on equity and sustainability).

In my department, the new chair is eager to revisit departmental policies to more fully embrace DIE and to align ourselves with the professional standards of anthropological associations, which may sound fine until you realize that these organizations are against open inquiry and are for accepting any mythology that tribes will peddle.

At SJSU, the offices are still empty, professors hold office hours on Zoom, faculty cancel classes and move them online (seemingly with great frequency), and students trickle in and out (with far more absences and lower enrollments than there were pre-COVID).

I am going to end on a note about students. They parrot the politically correct agenda whenever they’re asked anything controversial—government money and government education is the solution to everything from childhood obesity to poor math scores. When challenging them on these topics, I suggested that even at a very young age, we know that lollipops are not healthy, while broccoli is. They tried to deny this to keep their mantra: government money, government education. I don’t know if they’re being dishonest or if they have been brainwashed!

Do students even have a chance to receive a nonbiased education? In anthropology, which reaches nearly all students through general education courses, a look at some syllabi will reveal an unending onslaught of woke topics, such as “Colonialism and the Culture of Terror” and “Gender, Performativity and Normalcy.” A look at gen ed course titles throughout the university reveals much of the same, including “Global Warming: Science and Solutions,” “Introduction to Queer Arts,” and “Women of Color in the US.” This may explain why some students questioned my use of the term “Eskimo,” while only half of the class was able to identify Egypt on a map in my class on mummies.

I don’t know what will happen in the future, but if I were starting out as a student, I wouldn’t want to attend college now. That’s why I feel the need to continue to fight for anthropology and the academy more generally.

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