Disability anthropology is a cross-section of

anthropological Anthropology is the scientific study of humanity, concerned with human behavior, human biology, cultures, societies, and linguistics, in both the present and past, including archaic humans. Social anthropology studies patterns of behaviour, wh ...

studies that takes sociocultural approaches to interdisciplinary

disability studies Disability studies is an academic discipline that examines the meaning, nature, and consequences of disability. Initially, the field focused on the division between "impairment" and "disability", where impairment was an impairment of an individual ...

. The main subdisciplines of anthropology active in disability anthropology studies are

medical anthropology Medical anthropology studies "human health and disease, health care systems, and biocultural adaptation". It views humans from multidimensional and ecological perspectives. It is one of the most highly developed areas of anthropology and appli ...

and

cultural anthropology Cultural anthropology is a branch of anthropology focused on the study of cultural variation among humans. It is in contrast to social anthropology, which perceives cultural variation as a subset of a posited anthropological constant. The term ...

. The field of disability anthropology focuses on topics related to accessibility, activism, care, disability, embodiment, eugenics, illness, and much more. Scholars develop and assess approaches to solving problems or helping to bring about change for disabled people and communities. The topic of disability within anthropology persuades researchers to use a cultural lens and ethnolographic approach to identify unfamiliarity and "otherness" among cultures.

History

The contribution of anthropology to disability studies is still relatively new. Important scholars who consider the relationship between anthropology and disability include Devva Kasnitz and Russell Shuttleworth,

Faye Ginsburg Faye Ginsburg (born October 28, 1952) is an American anthropologist who has devoted her life to the exploration of different cultures and individuals’ styles of life. Ginsburg has published ethnographies about her fieldwork experiences in the U.S ...

and

Rayna Rapp Rayna Rapp (pen name Rayna R. Reiter) is a professor and associate chair of anthropology at New York University, specializing in gender and health; the politics of reproduction; science, technology, and genetics; and disability in the United State ...

, Cassandra Hartblay, and Erin L. Durban. There is a distinction between "anthropology of disability" and "disability anthropology" in that the latter is intimately connected to interdisciplinary critical

and

crip theory Crip, slang for cripple, is a term in the process of being reclaimed by disabled people. Wright State University suggests that the current community definition of crip includes people who experience any form of disability, such as one or more im ...

. Both these fields include extensive research done around the world.

The following are readings in the field of disability anthropology: * Açiksöz, Salih Can. 2020. Sacrificial Limbs: Masculinity, Disability, and Political Violence in Turkey. Oakland: University of California Press. * Block, Pamela, Devva Kasnitz, Akemi Nishida, and Nick Pollard, eds. 2015. Occupying Disability: Critical Approaches to Community, Justice, and Decolonizing Disability. Springer. * Dokumaci, Arseli. 2023. Activist Affordances: How Disabled People Improvise More Habitable Worlds. Durham: Duke University Press. * Durban, Erin L. 2022. “Anthropology and Ableism.” American Anthropologist 124 (1): 8–20. * Friedner, Michele, and Annelies Kusters. “Deaf Anthropology.” Annual Review of Anthropology 49, 2020: 31–47. * Friedner, Michele Ilana. 2022. Sensory Futures: Deafness and Cochlear Implant Infrastructures in India. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press. * Ginsburg, Faye, and Rayna Rapp. 2020. “Disability/Anthropology: Rethinking the Parameters of the Human.” Current Anthropology 61 (21): S4–15. * Ginsburg, Faye, and Rayna Rapp. 2024. Disability Worlds. Durham: Duke University Press. * Green, Mara. 2024. Making Sense: Language, Ethics, and Understanding in Deaf Nepal. University of California Press. * Hartblay, Cassandra. 2020. “Disability Expertise: Claiming Disability Anthropology.” Current Anthropology 61 (21): np. * Kasnitz, Devva. 2020. “The Politics of Disability Performativity: An Autoethnography.” Current Anthropology 61 (21): n.p. * Kulick, Don, and Jens Rydström. 2015. Loneliness and Its Opposite: Sex, Disability, and the Ethics of Engagement. Durham: Duke University Press. * Nakamura, Karen. 2013. A Disability of the Soul: An Ethnography of Schizophrenia and Mental Illness in Contemporary Japan. Ithaca: Cornell University Press. * Taylor, Sunaura. 2024. Disabled Ecologies: Lessons from a Wounded Desert. University of California Press. * Wool, Zoë H. 2015. After War: The Weight of life at Walter Reed. Duke University Press.

References

Medical anthropology Cultural anthropology Disability studies {{Disability-stub

History

Further reading

See also

References