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In important, increasingly visible ways anthropologists are acting as experts in legal cases. Anthropologists have served as consultants and expert witnesses in Native American land claims disputes, cultural rights and religious freedom cases,1 political asylum cases (Loucky and Alvarez, this volume), civil rights and desegregation cases,2 First Amendment and ethnic rights cases,3 criminal trials raising cultural issues,4 and cultural preservation,5 government benefits,6 and environmental matters. Anthropologists have testified both on the basis of long-term field experience with cultures and communities and about research specifically conducted for the purposes of ongoing litigation. With burgeoning cultural pluralism and ever-sharpening economic disparities in the United States, anthropological expert testimony is emerging from the chrysalis of issue-oriented litigation about indigenous and minority peoples, where anthropological expertise is well recognized, into more commonplace family, commercial, and criminal cases.
This volume is intended as a reflective yet practical guide for anthropologists working or thinking of working with lawyers and lawyers working or thinking of working with anthropologists. Two of the contributors, Randy Frances Kandel and Michael Davidson, are both anthropologists and attorneys; three, Peter Rigby, James Loucky, and Isabel Wright, are anthropologists who work closely with attorneys; and two, Peter Sevareid and Lynn Alvarez, are attorneys who work closely with anthropologists. Because the readers of NAPA Bulletins are primarily anthropologists, this volume takes somewhat of an anthropologist's eye view in rendering familiar the exotic culture of the law. But we believe attorneys may, with equal profit and pleasure, read it "in reverse" to gain insight into the exotic culture of the anthropologist.
List of contents
Preface. How Lawyers and Anthropologists Think Differently.
Two Case Studies of Effective Anthropological Experts.
A Legal Field Guide for the Expert Anthropologist Associate (Professor Randy Frances, Professor Peter Rigby, Professor Peter Sevareid, Michael Davidson, Isabel Wright, Lynn Alvarez, Assistant Professor James Loucky).
About the Contributors.
About the author
Volume Editor: Randy Frances Kandel General Editors Ralph J. Bishop and Pamela Amoss Randy Frances Kandel (Ph.D., Anthropology, City University of New York; J.D., New York University School of Law) has explored and experienced perspectives on the law-anthropology connection ranging from academic anthropology to law firm litigation practice. She is an associate professor at Loyola Law School, Los Angeles.
Summary
* peer reviewed publication of the National Association for the Practice of Anthropology * dedicated to the practical problem-solving and policy applications of anthropological knowledge and methods * most editions available for course adoption.
