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.
Profile →npx skills add brycewang-stanford/Awesome-Journal-Skills --skill amanthro-theory-building --agent claude-code
Same command for any agent — swap --agent for codex, cursor, copilot.
Weekly change comes from our own snapshots, not the repository page — it measures attention, not adoption.
# 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 ## Build the argument (by mode of work) ### Ethnographic / interpretive paper 1. **Concept** — define the key analytic precisely; distinguish it from neighbors and from the interlocutors' own terms (and say where you keep their term and why). 2. **Interpretive logic / mechanism** — the social process: who does what, with what meaning, under what constraints. Make it legible without flattening complexit
- When to trigger
- Build the argument (by mode of work)
- Ethnographic / interpretive paper
- Archaeological / biological paper
- Linguistic-anthropology paper
- Reflexivity & positionality (an AA hallmark)
- The "portability" test (AA-specific)
- Anti-patterns
- Output format
- Supplementary resources
What does the amanthro-theory-building skill do?
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.
How do I install it?
Run `npx skills add brycewang-stanford/Awesome-Journal-Skills --skill amanthro-theory-building --agent claude-code` — it drops the skill into your project so the agent can pick it up. Swap the --agent value for codex, cursor or copilot if you use one of those.
Where does this skill come from?
From brycewang-stanford/Awesome-Journal-Skills, a repository with 909 stars. We read it straight from the repository tree rather than a submitted listing, so what you see here is what is actually published.
Is a popular skill a good skill?
Not necessarily. Stars measure attention, not adoption — a repository can trend for a week and be abandoned. That is why we show the weekly change from our own snapshots next to the total, instead of a single flattering number.