Individual skill
amanthro-theory-building
Use when building the conceptual/theoretical argument of an American Anthropologist (AA) manuscript into a four-field contribution — whether the work is ethnographic, archaeological, biological, or linguistic. AA rewards a portable concept and reflexive argument over a bare finding or thick description alone. Structures the argument; it does not run analyses or write fieldnotes.
American-Anthropologist-Skills/skills/amanthro-theory-building/SKILL.md
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# Theory & Argument Building (amanthro-theory-building)
At AA, evidence is not a contribution until it is attached to an **argument other anthropologists can
use elsewhere.** This skill turns fieldwork, material, or measurements into theory: explicit concepts,
mechanisms or interpretive logics, scope conditions, and **positionality**, in the idiom appropriate to
your subfield. Thick description is necessary at AA but not sufficient — the "so what" must travel.
## When to trigger
- The ethnography/data are rich but the conceptual payoff is thin
- A reviewer said the paper is "descriptive," "undertheorized," or "just a case"
- You need to state concepts, mechanisms, and scope conditions explicitly
- You must make your **positionality** and relationship to the field part of the argument
