The anthropologist Leon E. Stover says of science fiction's relationship to anthropology: "Anthropological science fiction enjoys the philosophical luxury of providing answers to the question "What is man?" while

anthropology Anthropology is the scientific study of humanity, concerned with human behavior, human biology, cultures, societies, and linguistics, in both the present and past, including past human species. Social anthropology studies patterns of be ...

the science is still learning how to frame it".Stover, Leon, E. "Anthropology and Science Fiction", ''Current Anthropology'', Vol. 14, No. 4 (Oct., 1973) The editors of a collection of anthropological SF stories observed: Charles F. Urbanowicz, Professor of Anthropology,

California State University, Chico California State University, Chico, or commonly, Chico State, is a public university in Chico, California. Founded in 1887, it is the second oldest campus in the California State University system. As of the fall 2020 semester, the university h ...

has said of anthropology and SF: The difficulty in describing category boundaries for 'anthropological SF' is illustrated by a reviewer of an anthology of anthropological SF, written for the journal ''

American Anthropologist ''American Anthropologist'' is the flagship journal of the American Anthropological Association (AAA), published quarterly by Wiley. The "New Series" began in 1899 under an editorial board that included Franz Boas, Daniel G. Brinton, and John W ...

'', which warned against too broad a definition of the subgenre, saying: "Just because a story has anthropologists as protagonists or makes vague references to 'culture' does not qualify it as anthropological science fiction, although it may be 'pop' anthropology." The writer concluded the book review with the opinion that only "twelve of the twenty-six selections can be considered as examples of anthropological science fiction." This difficulty of categorization explains the exclusions necessary when seeking the origins of the subgenre. Thus: Again, questions of description are not simple as

Gary Westfahl Gary Wesley Westfahl (born May 7, 1951) is an American scholar of science fiction. He has written reviews for the ''Los Angeles Times'', ''The Internet Review of Science Fiction'' and Locus Online. He worked at the University of California, River ...

observes: Despite being described as a "late-twentieth-century phenomenon" (above) anthropological SF's roots can be traced further back in history.

H. G. Wells Herbert George Wells"Wells, H. G."
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continues: " he storyopens with the line 'Can these bones live?' Writers are still trying to make them live, the latest being

Golding Golding is an English surname. People People with the surname include: * Andrew Golding (born 1963), English cricketer * Arthur Golding (c. 1536 – 1606), English translator * Ashton Golding (born 1996), Jamaican rugby league footballer * Bel ...

. Some others in between have been de Camp, Del Rey,

Farmer A farmer is a person engaged in agriculture, raising living organisms for food or raw materials. The term usually applies to people who do some combination of raising field crops, orchards, vineyards, poultry, or other livestock. A farmer m ...

, and Klass." A more contemporary example of the Neanderthal as subject is

Robert J. Sawyer Robert James Sawyer (born April 29, 1960) is a Canadian science fiction writer. He has had 24 novels published and his short fiction has appeared in ''Analog Science Fiction and Fact'', ''Amazing Stories'', '' On Spec'', ''Nature'', and numerou ...

's trilogy "

The Neanderthal Parallax The Neanderthal Parallax is a trilogy of novels written by Robert J. Sawyer and published by Tor. It depicts the effects of the opening of a connection between two versions of Earth in different parallel universes: the world familiar to the re ...

" – here "scientists from an alternative earth in which Neanderthals superseded homo sapiens cross over to our world. The series as a whole allows Sawyer to explore questions of evolution and humanity's relationship to the environment."

Authors and works

Chad Oliver

Anthropological science fiction is best exemplified by the work of writers such as Ursula K. Le Guin, Michael Bishop, Joanna Russ, Ian Watson, and Chad Oliver. Of this pantheon, Oliver is alone in being also a professional anthropologist, author of academic tomes such as ''Ecology and Cultural Continuity as Contributing Factors in the Social Organization of the Plains Indians'' (1962) and ''The Discovery of Anthropology'' (1981) in addition to his anthropologically-inflected science fiction. Although he tried, in a superficial way, to separate these two aspects of his career, signing his anthropology texts with his given name "Symmes C. Oliver", he nonetheless saw them as productively interrelated. "I like to think," he commented in a 1984 interview, "that there's a kind of feedback ... that the kind of open-minded perspective in science fiction conceivably has made me a better anthropologist. And on the other side of the coin, the kind of rigor that anthropology has, conceivably has made me a better science fiction writer." Thus "Oliver's ''Unearthly Neighbors'' (1960) highlights the methods of ethnographic fieldwork by imagining their application to a nonhuman race on another world. His ''Blood's a Rover'' (1955

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spells out the problems of applied anthropology by sending a technical-assistance team to an underdeveloped planet. His ''Rite of Passage'' (1966

954 Year 954 ( CMLIV) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. Events By place Europe * Spring – A Hungarian army led by Bulcsú crosses the Rhine. He camps at Worms in th ...

is a lesson in the patterning of culture, how humans everywhere unconsciously work out a blueprint for living. Anthropological wisdom is applied to the conscious design of a new blueprint for American society in his ''Mother of Necessity'' (1972

955 Year 955 ( CMLV) was a common year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. Events By place Europe * August 10 – Battle of Lechfeld: King Otto I ("the Great") defeats the Hungarians (also ...

". Oliver's ''The Winds of Time'' is a "science fiction novel giving an excellent introduction to the field methods of descriptive linguistics". In 1993 a journal of SF criticism requested from writers and critics of SF a list of their 'most neglected' writers, and Chad Oliver was listed in three replies. Among the works chosen were: ''Shadows in the Sun'', ''Unearthly Neighbors'', and ''The Shores of Another Sea''. One respondent declared that "Oliver's anthropological SF is the precursor of more recent novels by Ursula K. Le Guin, Michael Bishop, and others"; another that "Chad Oliver was developing quiet, superbly crafted anthropological fictions long before anyone had heard of Le Guin; maybe his slight output and unassuming plots (and being out of print) have caused people to overlook the carefully thought-out ideas behind his fiction". In the novel ''Shadows in the Sun'' the protagonist, Paul Ellery, is an anthropologist doing field work in the town of Jefferson Springs, Texas—a place where he discovers extraterrestrial aliens. It has been remarked that: A reviewer of ''The Shores of Another Sea'' finds the book "curiously flat despite its exploration of an almost mythical, and often horrific, theme". The reviewer's reaction is not surprising because, as Samuel Gerald Collins points out in the 'New Wave Anthropology' section of his comprehensive review of Chad Oliver's work: "In many ways, the novel is very much unlike Oliver's previous work; there is little moral resolution, nor is anthropology of much help in determining what motivates the aliens. In striking contrast to the familiar chumminess of the aliens in ''Shadows in the Sun'' and ''The Winds of Time'', humans and aliens in ''Shores of Another Sea'' systematically misunderstand one another." Collins continues: At the conclusion of his essay, discussing Chad Oliver's legacy Collins says:

Ursula K. Le Guin

It has often been observed that

Ursula K. Le Guin Ursula Kroeber Le Guin (; October 21, 1929 – January 22, 2018) was an American author best known for her works of speculative fiction, including science fiction works set in her Hainish universe, and the '' Earthsea'' fantasy series. She was ...

's interest in anthropology and its influence on her fiction derives from the influence of both her mother

Theodora Kroeber Theodora Kroeber (March 24, 1897 – July 4, 1979) was an American writer and anthropologist, best known for her accounts of several Native Californian cultures. Born in Denver, Colorado, Kroeber grew up in the mining town of Telluride, and wor ...

, and of her father,

Alfred L. Kroeber Alfred Louis Kroeber (June 11, 1876 – October 5, 1960) was an American cultural anthropologist. He received his PhD under Franz Boas at Columbia University in 1901, the first doctorate in anthropology awarded by Columbia. He was also the first ...

.Rochelle, Warren G. "Ursula K. Le Guin" in David Seed (ed.) ''A companion to Science Fiction'' (Malden, MA: Blackwell, 2008)Fayad, Mona. "Aliens, androgynes, and anthropology: Le Guin's critique of representation in The Left Hand of Darkness", ''Mosaic: a Journal for the interdisciplinary Study of Literature''. Winnipeg: Sep 1997.Vol. 30, Iss. 3 Warren G. Rochelle in his essay on Le Guin notes that from her parents she: Another critic has observed that Le Guin's "concern with cultural biases is evident throughout her literary career", and continues, Le Guin's novel ''

The Left Hand of Darkness ''The Left Hand of Darkness'' is a science fiction novel by U.S. writer Ursula K. Le Guin. Published in 1969, it became immensely popular, and established Le Guin's status as a major author of science fiction. The novel is set in the fiction ...

'' has been called "the most sophisticated and technically plausible work of anthropological science fiction, insofar as the relationship of culture and biology is concerned", and also rated as "perhaps her most notable book".Roberts, Adam. ''The History of Science Fiction'', (New York: Palgrave Macmillan , 2005) This novel forms part of Le Guin's Hainish Cycle (so termed because it develops as a whole "a vast story about diverse planets seeded with life by the ancient inhabitants of Hain").Hainish series of novels: ''Rocannon's World'' (1966) ''Planet of Exile'' (1966) ''City of Illusions'' (1967) ''The Left Hand of Darkness'' (1969) ''The Word for World is Forest'' (1972) ''The Dispossed'' (1974) The series is "a densely textured anthropology, unfolding through a cycle of novels and stories and actually populated by several anthropologists and ethnologists"."Collins, Samuel Gerald. "Sail On! Sail On!: Anthropology, Science Fiction, and the Enticing Future", ''Science Fiction Studies'', Vol. 30, No. 2, (Jul., 2003) Le Guin employs the SF trope of inter-stellar travel which allows for fictional human colonies on other worlds developing widely differing social systems.Samuel, Geoffre
"Inventing Real Cultures: Some Comments on Anthropology and Science Fiction. Part 2"
For example, in ''The Left Hand of Darkness'' "a human envoy to the snowbound planet of Gethan struggles to understand its sexually ambivalent inhabitants". Published in 1969, this Le Guin novel: Geoffery Samuel has pointed out some specific anthropological aspect to Le Guin's fiction, noting that: However,

Fredric Jameson Fredric Jameson (born April 14, 1934) is an American literary critic, philosopher and Marxist political theorist. He is best known for his analysis of contemporary cultural trends, particularly his analysis of postmodernity and capitalism. Jam ...

says of ''The Left Hand of Darkness'' that the novel is "constructed from a heterogeneous group of narratives modes ...", and that: Similarly Adam Roberts warns against a too narrow an interpretation of Le Guin's fiction, pointing out that her writing is always balanced and that "balance as such forms one of her major concerns. Both ''Left Hand'' and ''The Dispossed'' (1974) balance form to theme, of symbol to narration, flawlessly". Nevertheless, there is no doubt that the novel ''The Left Hand of Darkness'' is steeped in anthropological thought, with one academic critic noting that "the theories of rench anthropologist

Claude Lévi-Strauss Claude Lévi-Strauss (, ; 28 November 1908 – 30 October 2009) was a French anthropologist and ethnologist whose work was key in the development of the theories of structuralism and structural anthropology. He held the chair of Social An ...

provide an access to understanding the workings of the myths" in the novel.Walker, Jeanne Murray. "Myth, Exchange and History in ''The Left Hand of Darkness''", ''Science Fiction Studies'', Vol. 6, No. 2 (Jul., 1979), pp.180-189 Later in the essay the author explains:

Notes

References

{{Science fiction Science fiction genres

Science fiction Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel uni ...