The Anthropology of Science Part II : Scientific Norms and Behaviors

A major consequence of seeing science as a cultural activity is the ability to distinguish formally between the normative and expressed behaviors of scientists. Science progresses often in spite of the constraints and conflicting goals imposed on scientists; therefore studying science and studying scientists are not equivalent. Nevertheless, what scientists do is a starting point for understanding how science functions in modern society. The eugenics movement of the 1920s provides a paradigmatic example of how science is invoked as cultural authority, and of the importance in distinguishing among good science, bad science, and pseudo-science. While this may be easy in retrospect, retrospect is too late. Straddling the sciences and humanities, anthropology is situated in a unique position to mediate the “culture wars,” by analyzing both the boundaries of science itself and the activities of scientists in society.