By Gallous Atabongwoung, PhD, University of Pretoria

Anthropology in Canada urges us to avoid ethnocentrism and proactively engage on important issues such as diversity, equity and inclusivity that if not handle with care can fragment a society (1).This article emphasises on the role of CASCA as a bridge that connect anthropologists from global south and north to collectively challenge and advance scholarship in the discipline of anthropology with CASCA at the epicentre of ideas, research and opportunities. It is therefore time to engage.

Canada is a heterogenous society with European (52.5%), North American (22.9%), Asian (19.3%), North American Indigenous (6.1%), African (3.8%), Latin, Central and South American (2.5%), Caribbean (2.1%), Oceanian (0.3%), and Other (6%) (2). As a result of multiple-origins immigration pattern, with arrival of large numbers of immigrants from non-British or non-French backgrounds (3).Consequently, multiculturalism was adopted as the official policy of the government of Canada during the premiership of Pierre Trudeau in the 1970s and 1980s (4).

This makes Canada a salient space for the study of anthropology (5). Anthropologists who work in research organizations, government, and consulting firms in Canada have written on the challenges facing the field. Some challenges such as cultural biases, ethical considerations, language barriers, access to research communities, interpreting cultural practices accurately, and maintaining objectivity is what contemporary Anthropology scholars in Canada must engage on (6). This is vital considering the experience of first nation people in the country (7).

Given that Anthropology is placed on a permanent social location. It should continue to innovate and grow. That is why in Canada, future direction of Anthropology embraces  critical issues; anthropogenic biomes, biomes that are human made (8). This is essential in understanding how Canadians impact the environment and the consequence of their activities and in disaster preparedness vis-à-vis rising climate change challenges. 

There remains increasing demand for cultural anthropologists in Canada. Some organizations recognize the value and contribution of Canadians who understand cultural differences and the need to position the country in the global Anthropological scene.  This was envisaged in the recent 2024 Conference at the University of British Columbia (UBC) Okanagan in Kelowna, which had the largest attendance ever in the history of CASCA – 365 in-person attendees (9). And a positive shift in the organization’s membership which slightly increased to 620 for 2024 versus 605 for 2023 (10). 

The history of British Columbia is well documented. It began with the indigenous peoples, who lived and flourished throughout that geographic space for thousands of years (11). Indigenous art, culture, languages, festivals and history are an integral part of B.C.’s cultural make-up (12). Hence, everywhere you travel in the province you see Indigenous names for towns, cities, rivers, lakes, mountains and fjords. Some of the names go back many thousands of years. The city names Nanaimo, Kamloops and Chilliwack, for instance, are all derived from Indigenous words (13).

This reality gives hope that Anthropology in Canada is not dying as some think. However, it requires lot of training today. The training is necessary because of advances made in Canadian Anthropology in recent years. For example, linguistic Anthropologist in Canada have made progress in terms of how exoglossic languages which are markers and identifiers influence the life of indigenous people (14).

In addition, other themes that set Canada apart from other geographic space are cultural relativism, universalism and human rights, time, history, memory globalization and modernity, as well as decolonizing Anthropology (15). This includes four regular qualitative Anthropological data collection methods that have been adopted in Canada over time such as; (a) participant observation, (b) in-depth interviews, (c) focus groups, and (d) textual analysis are still very useful (16).

This is because the challenges facing Anthropology in Canada hitherto remains the same; cultural biases, ethical considerations, language barriers, access to research communities, interpreting cultural practices accurately, and maintaining objectivity (17). Therefore, in view of the precedent, I as a bilingual speaker (English and French) was excited to engage with scholars of Anthropology from Canada and across the globe with the intention of building new collaboration networks during breakaways sessions at the last CASCA Conference which I participated online. 

I am currently looking at academic opportunities in Canada in the field of Anthropology in order to conduct a comparative study that looks at indigenous communities in Canada and Cameroon and how English and French are used to perpetrate cultural biases. This research is important because Canada and Cameroon are only two English and French bilingual countries in the world. I as an Anthropologist originate from Cameroon.

References

1. De González, L.T., 2024. Through the lens of cultural anthropology. University of Toronto Press.
2. Bélanger, A. and Malenfant, É.C., 2005. Ethnocultural diversity in Canada: Prospects for 2017. Canadian social trends, 79(19), pp.11-008.
3. Robinson, G.M. ed., 2013. A Social Geography of Canada. Dundurn.
4. Steffen, D.F., 2022. Canadian Multiculturalism Its Political Origins Under Pierre Trudeau. The University of Regina (Canada).
5. Dunk, T., 2000. National culture, political economy and socio-cultural anthropology in English Canada. Anthropologica, pp.131-145.
6. Hedican, E.J., 2008. Applied anthropology in Canada: Understanding aboriginal issues. University of Toronto Press.
7. Prince, H., Nadin, S., Crow, M., Maki, L., Monture, L., Smith, J. and Kelley, M.L., 2019. “If you understand you cope better with it”: the role of education in building palliative care capacity in four First Nations communities in Canada. BMC public health, 19, pp.1-18.
8. Ellis, E.C., 2013. Sustaining biodiversity and people in the world’s anthropogenic biomes. Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability, 5(3-4), pp.368-372.
9. https://casca.ca/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/2024_06_03-CASCA-Board-Meeting-Minutes-v2.pdf
10. ibid
11. https://www.welcomebc.ca/choose-b-c/explore-british-columbia/history-of-b-c
12. ibid
13. Rayburn, A., 2001. Naming Canada: stories about Canadian place names. University of Toronto Press.
14. Darnell, R., 2005. Linguistic anthropology in Canada: Some personal reflections. Canadian Journal of Linguistics/Revue canadienne de linguistique, 50(1-4), pp.151-172.
15. Lewellen, T.C., 2002. The anthropology of globalization: Cultural anthropology enters the 21st century. Bloomsbury Publishing USA.
16. Baines, D. and Cunningham, I., 2013. Using comparative perspective rapid ethnography in international case studies: Strengths and challenges. Qualitative Social Work, 12(1), pp.73-88.
17. Haviland, W.A., Prins, H.E., McBride, B. and Walrath, D., 2017. Cultural anthropology: The human challenge. Boston: Cengage Learning.