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What Do Anthropologists Mean When They Use the Term Biocultural ?

2016; Wiley; Volume: 118; Issue: 3 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1111/aman.12608

1548-1433

Andrea S. Wiley, Jennifer M. Cullin,

Environmental and Cultural Studies in Latin America and Beyond

The term biocultural is often invoked as a unifying theme in a holistic vision of anthropology. To ascertain patterns in its use and meaning in current anthropological publications, we conducted a bibliometric review of the use of biocultural in AAA journals, Current Anthropology (CA), Annual Review of Anthropology (ARA), and in American Journal of Human Biology (AJHB) from 2000–2014. The term was found in 177 articles in the sample from AAA journals, CA, and ARA, and in 74 AJHB articles, representing approximately 3 percent of the total number of articles published in the anthropology journals and approximately 5 percent of those in AJHB from 2000–2014. The term biocultural most commonly referred to how the social environment affects human biology (75% in AAA/CA/ARA, 95% in AJHB) and was topically aligned with health (46% in AAA/CA/ARA, 77% in AJHB). Articles from biological and cultural subfields were evenly represented in the AAA/CA/ARA sample (37% and 36%, respectively). There was extensive variation in what the term biocultural described. Evolutionary theory or political economic analyses were employed in a minority of articles using the term biocultural. Currently there is no consensus on what criteria define biocultural, and there is wide variation in its use. [biocultural, holism, bibliometric analysis] El término biocultural es a menudo invocado como un tema unificador en una visión holística de la antropología. Para establecer los patrones en su uso y significado en publicaciones antropológicas actuales, condujimos una revisión bibliométrica del uso de biocultural en revistas de la AAA, Antropología Actual (AC), Revista Annual de Antropología (ARA), y en la Revista Americana de Biología Humana (AJHB) del 2000–2014. El término fue hallado en 177 artículos en la muestra de revistas de la AAA, CA, y ARA y en 74 artículos de la AJHB, representando aproximadamente el tres porciento del número total de artículos publicados en las revistas de antropología y aproximadamente el cinco porciento de la AJHB del 2000–2014. El término biocultural se refirió más comúnmente a cómo el ambiente social afecta la biología humana (75% en AAA/CA/ARA, 95% en AJHB) y en términos de tópicos se alineó con salud (46% en AAA/CA/ARA, 77% en AJHB). Los artículos de los subcampos biológico y cultural estuvieron equitativamente representados en la muestra de AAA/CA/ARA (37% y 36%, respectivamente). Hubo una extensiva variación en lo que el término biocultural describió. La teoría evolucionaria o los análisis económico-políticos se emplearon en una minoría de artículos usando el término biocultural. Actualmente no hay un consenso sobre qué criterios definen biocultural, y hay una amplia variación en su uso. [biocultural, holismo, análisis bibliométrico] Additional supporting information may be found in the online version of this article at the publisher's website: Supplementary Table 1: Bibliography of Sources included in Literature Search Supplementary Table 2: Total number of articles containing the term "biocultural" and total articles published (in parentheses) by year and journal. Supplementary Table 3: List of biocultural descriptors in AAA/CA/ARA and AJHB samples and total number of uses. Please note: The publisher is not responsible for the content or functionality of any supporting information supplied by the authors. Any queries (other than missing content) should be directed to the corresponding author for the article.