Critical Anthropology

The application of critical theory to anthropology—examining the discipline's colonial history, its role in constructing ideas about "other" cultures, and its potential for challenging ethnocentrism and power. Critical Anthropology asks: How has anthropology served colonial projects? Who gets to study whom? How do anthropologists represent other cultures, and with what effects? Can anthropology be decolonized? Critical Anthropology doesn't reject the study of human diversity; it insists that anthropology must examine its own position, its own history, and its own complicity in the power structures it studies.

"Early anthropologists studied 'primitive' cultures to show Western superiority. Critical Anthropology asks: who defined 'primitive'? Who benefited from these definitions? Anthropology has a colonial past; ignoring it repeats it. Critical Anthropology doesn't abandon the study of others—it insists on studying ourselves studying others. Reflexivity isn't optional; it's essential."

by Dumu The Void March 3, 2026

Marxist Anthropology

The application of Marxist analysis to anthropology—examining how modes of production shape cultures, how class relations operate in non-capitalist societies, and how anthropology can serve liberation rather than colonialism. Marxist Anthropology asks: How do economic systems structure social relations? How do societies change through internal contradictions? Can studying non-capitalist societies illuminate alternatives to capitalism? Drawing on Marx's materialist conception of history, Marxist Anthropology examines the relationships between economy, culture, and power across human societies. It's anthropology with class analysis, history, and a commitment to human liberation.

"They studied 'primitive' cultures as if they existed outside history. Marxist Anthropology asks: what about their modes of production? Their class relations? Their internal dynamics? Every society has an economy, and that economy shapes everything else. Marxist Anthropology doesn't exoticize; it analyzes. Not just describing cultures, but understanding how they work—and how they change."

by Dumu The Void March 3, 2026

Leftist Anthropology

A leftist approach to anthropology—studying human diversity with attention to power, inequality, and resistance, and with commitment to human liberation. Leftist Anthropology asks: How do economic systems shape cultures? How do people resist domination? What can we learn from societies that organize differently? How can anthropology serve struggles for justice rather than colonialism or exploitation? Drawing on Marxist, feminist, and anti-colonial traditions, Leftist Anthropology studies humans with solidarity, not just curiosity.

"They studied a society and called them 'primitive.' Leftist Anthropology asks: primitive by whose standards? What about their economy, their resistance, their wisdom? Anthropology can exoticize or it can learn. Leftist anthropology learns—from everyone, especially those fighting domination. Not just studying others, but standing with them."

by Dumu The Void March 3, 2026

Cooperative Anthropology

The study of human cultures, societies, and evolution through the lens of collaboration and mutual aid. It challenges the dominant narratives that portray prehistoric life as a brutal, competitive struggle for survival, instead highlighting evidence of trade networks, shared childcare, collective hunting strategies, and communal living. Cooperative anthropology argues that our ability to work together, not just our ability to out-compete others, is the defining feature of what made us human.

Example: "The textbook focused on ancient wars, but my professor's lecture on cooperative anthropology showed how much of history was actually about people just helping each other not starve."

by Dumu The Void March 11, 2026

Communitarian Anthropology

The study of human societies that centers the community, the collective, and the commons as the primary source of meaning, identity, and survival. It examines cultures where the individual is understood not as a standalone entity, but as an expression of the group. From shared land ownership to extended kinship systems to rituals that reinforce collective memory, communitarian anthropology documents the myriad ways humans have organized themselves around the principle that "we are, therefore I am."

Example: "Visiting the village where decisions were made by consensus, I felt like I'd stepped into a communitarian anthropology textbook—a place where 'my' opinion didn't exist, only 'our' decision."

by Dumu The Void March 11, 2026

Human on anthro

Human on anthropomorphic animal in the form of sexual intercourse or romance. Not to be confused with beastiality.

“Dude, I looked at your search history… what’s human on anthro?”

“Oh it’s just furry shit. Furries having sex with humans.”

by ObamaSus April 30, 2022

Human on anthro

Romantic or sexual interactions between humans and human(anthro) animals in fiction.

This is different from bestiality, which refers to sexual activities between humans and real, *non-human* animals.

Some critics mistakenly combine the two concepts, but the key differences are based on consent, cognition, and the entirely imagined nature of anthros.

Since anthro characters are sentient beings with human-like forms and minds, human on anthro interactions do not equate to bestiality.

by j.kennedy April 7, 2025