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Agent skill stack for manuscripts targeted at American Anthropologist (AA) — the flagship four-field journal of the American Anthropological Association (AAA), founded in 1888 and published by Wiley. AA publishes the best scholarship across the whole of anthropology: sociocultural anthropology, archaeology, biological/physical anthropology, and linguistic anthropology, together with reflexive and public anthropology. The journal is predominantly ethnographic and qualitative, but it also publishes material/archaeological and quantitative biological work — and it is distinctively strong on theory, reflexivity, ethics, and writing.
This repository is opinionated. It is not a generic social-science writing toolbox and it is not an econometrics pack repurposed for anthropology. It is an AA-specific stack: a contribution of four-field significance, an argument that speaks past its own subfield, ethnographic and qualitative inference treated as first-class, reflexivity and positionality made explicit, anonymous preparation, and — at the center — research ethics and accountability: informed consent, anonymization, protection of vulnerable communities, and heritage/repatriation obligations under the AAA Principles of Professional Responsibility and an ethics of care.
AA's constraints differ from a single-subfield journal or a quantitative social-science venue:
| Constraint | American Anthropologist | Implication |
|---|---|---|
| Scope | Four fields of anthropology + reflexive/public | The paper must matter beyond its subfield |
| Premium on | Four-field significance + a portable concept, with reflexivity | A narrow, subfield-only description is off-fit |
| Methods | Ethnographic/qualitative first-class; also material, lab, computational | Do not force ethnography into a hypothesis-test template |
| Publisher / owner | Wiley / AAA | Submitted via Research Exchange (since Apr 2025) |
| Review model | Anonymous peer review under an ethics of care | Anonymize manuscript and file name; separate title page |
| Fee | No submission or publication fee | Do not budget a fee (OnlineOpen APC only if going open access) |
| Length | Research Articles ≤ 8,000 words; abstract 200; shorter sections vary | Counts include figures, tables, references, notes |
| Style | Chicago author-date; free-format accepted; DOIs in references | Not a rigid template at first submission; ORCID per Wiley |
| Ethics | Consent, anonymization, heritage/repatriation, accountability are central | Ethics is designed in, and gates publication |
| Distinctive sections | Vital Topics Forums · World / Public / Multimodal Anthropologies · Review Essays | Choose the right section up front |
Official basis checked 2026-06-20 — facts are anchored to the AA editorial site, AAA ethics and news pages, AnthroSource/Wiley, and Wiley's Author Compliance Tool. Live Research Exchange prompts, APCs, and editorial rosters can change; verify those at upload or acceptance.
- Research Articles — full studies, ≤ 8,000 words (extendable to ~10,500 on acceptance).
- Vital Topics Forums — curated multi-author debates on pressing issues (often invited/proposed).
- World Anthropologies — anthropology produced beyond the Anglophone center; decenters the canon.
- Public Anthropologies — engaged, activist, publicly-facing scholarship.
- Multimodal Anthropologies — image/sound/film as argument, treated as scholarship in its own right.
- Essays / Commentaries / Interviews / Review Essays / Book Reviews — shorter formats with their own caps.
/plugin marketplace add https://github.com/brycewang-stanford/american-anthropologist-skills
/plugin install american-anthropologist-skills
/reload-pluginsgit clone https://github.com/brycewang-stanford/american-anthropologist-skills.git
cd american-anthropologist-skills
mkdir -p ~/.claude/skills && cp -R skills/amanthro-* ~/.claude/skills/
# or
mkdir -p ~/.codex/skills && cp -R skills/amanthro-* ~/.codex/skills/Use amanthro-workflow to tell me which skill I should use next for my American Anthropologist manuscript.
amanthro-topic-selection
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amanthro-literature-positioning
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amanthro-theory-building
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amanthro-research-design
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amanthro-data-analysis
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amanthro-tables-figures
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amanthro-writing-style (polish)
▼
amanthro-transparency-and-data (ethics & accountability — also run EARLY)
▼
amanthro-review-process
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amanthro-submission
▼
amanthro-rebuttal
amanthro-workflow is the router — it tells you which skill to use next based on your stage, subfield,
and section. The ethics-and-accountability skill (amanthro-transparency-and-data) should run
early as well as before submission: consent, anonymization, and heritage obligations are design
decisions, not final-step checks.
| Skill | Purpose |
|---|---|
amanthro-workflow |
Router — decides which sub-skill to invoke next (by stage, subfield, section) |
amanthro-topic-selection |
Four-field fit across anthropology; pick the right section |
amanthro-literature-positioning |
Speak past your subfield; decenter the canon; citational politics |
amanthro-theory-building |
Build a portable concept + reflexive argument (ethnographic to biological) |
amanthro-research-design |
Defend the design — fieldwork, archival/material, lab/quant, multimodal |
amanthro-data-analysis |
Disciplined interpretation; honest evidence; quant rigor for bio/archaeology |
amanthro-tables-figures |
Ethnographic + multimodal exhibits: consent, permissions, alt text |
amanthro-writing-style |
Chicago author-date; reach four fields; care-ful, inclusive language |
amanthro-transparency-and-data |
Ethics & accountability: consent, anonymization, heritage/repatriation |
amanthro-review-process |
Anonymous review, ethics of care, screening, sections, decision categories |
amanthro-submission |
Research Exchange preflight (anonymization, caps, ethics statement, ORCID) |
amanthro-rebuttal |
R&R response-letter strategy for cross-subfield reviewers + editor |
resources/external_tools.md— anthropology data sources, archives, and software (CAQDAS, transcription, GIS, lab/quant) by subfieldresources/official-source-map.md— official AA / AAA / Wiley URLs behind every fact and live-check guardrailresources/worked-examples/01-introduction.md— before→after AA-style introduction (fictional)resources/exemplars/library.md— real, web-verified AA papers by subfield × method, with a sibling-journal guard
| Journal | Scope / format | This pack's guard |
|---|---|---|
| American Anthropologist (AA) | Four-field AAA flagship; ethnographic + material + bio + linguistic | The target of this pack |
| American Ethnologist (AE) | Sociocultural ethnography (AAA/AES) | AA is broader four-field, not AE's sociocultural focus |
| Cultural Anthropology (CA) | Sociocultural, theory-forward (SCA), often open access | AA is four-field, not CA's sociocultural-only remit |
| Current Anthropology | Four-field but with the distinctive CA✩ comments-and-reply format (Wenner-Gren/Chicago) | AA has no CA✩ format; do not confuse the two |
- It does not write a submittable manuscript for you
- It does not simulate any specific editor's or reviewer's taste
- It does not grant ethics waivers or replace IRB/community review
- It does not hard-code volatile metadata beyond sourced facts; verify Research Exchange prompts, APCs, and masthead changes on the live pages
- awesome-journal-skills — Index of journal-specific skill packs
- American Anthropologist (Wiley Online Library) — publisher home
- American Anthropologist editorial site — sections, how-to-submit, editorial policies
- American Anthropological Association — owner; ethics principles
MIT