Disability anthropology is the combined subdisciplines of anthropology that focus their research on disability studies within the domain of culture. Each subdiscipline of anthropology overlaps with disability studies, with its main contributions coming from the medical anthropology and cultural anthropology fields. The collaboration of anthropology and disability studies aims to further the understanding of the lives of disabled individuals cross-culturally; to improve the quality of life for disabled persons; to promote a mutual engagement and collaboration in research and curriculum development by anthropologists and other scholars looking at disability. The field of disability anthropology has a connection to applied anthropology, in which research focuses on understanding socio/cultural problems within disability and using the research to develop and assess approaches to solving problems or helping to bring about positive change in the disabled community. The topic of disability within anthropology persuades researchers to use a cultural lens and ethnological approach to identify unfamiliarity and “otherness” among cultures. Ethnographers pursue research in disability anthropology for a renewal of their experience of unfamiliarity in a known field site; researchers may also be looking for “otherness” closer to home; and also attracts anthropologists because it is a socially and culturally constructed category with important implications about how societies differentially distribute power . Some important figures in the discourse of anthropological involvement in disability include Devva Kasnitz and Russell Shuttleworth . Shuttleworth’s work has focused on how an exploration of multiple roles and allegiances can challenge the assumptions of both anthropology and disability studies in his research on the search for sexual intimacy for men with cerebral palsy in the San Francisco Bay Area .
Disability anthropology is the combined subdisciplines of anthropology that focus their research on disability studies within the domain of culture. Each subdiscipline of anthropology overlaps with disability studies, with its main contributions coming from the medical anthropology and cultural anthropology fields. The field of disability anthropology has a connection to applied anthropology, in which research focuses on understanding socio/cultural problems within disability and using the research to develop and assess approaches to solving problems or helping to bring about positive change in the disabled community. The topic of disability within anthropology persuades researchers to use a cultural lens and ethnological approach to identify unfamiliarity and “otherness” among cultures. . Some important figures in the discourse of anthropological involvement in disability include Devva Kasnitz and Russell Shuttleworth .
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The collaboration of anthropology and disability studies aims to further the understanding of the lives of disabled individuals cross-culturally; to improve the quality of life for disabled persons; to promote a mutual engagement and collaboration in research and curriculum development by anthropologists and other scholars looking at disability.
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Ethnographers pursue research in disability anthropology for a renewal of their experience of unfamiliarity in a known field site; researchers may also be looking for “otherness” closer to home; and also attracts anthropologists because it is a socially and culturally constructed category with important implications about how societies differentially distribute power
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. Shuttleworth’s work has focused on how an exploration of multiple roles and allegiances can challenge the assumptions of both anthropology and disability studies in his research on the search for sexual intimacy for men with cerebral palsy in the San Francisco Bay Area