Opening the Closet: William S. Willis Jr. and Anthropology’s Reckoning
Opening the Closet: William S. Willis Jr. and Anthropology’s Reckoning In 1971, anthropologist William S. Willis Jr. published an essay that would echo through the discipline for decades: “Skeletons in the Anthropological Closet.” It was not simply a critique—it was a call to conscience. At a moment when anthropology was already being challenged by decolonization movements and civil rights struggles, Willis asked the field to confront its own hidden history. This was not an outsider’s critique. Willis was trained within the very institutions he examined, and his work reflects both deep knowledge and deep disappointment. The Core Argument: Anthropology Is Not Innocent Willis argued that anthropology, particularly in the United States, had long been entangled with racial ideology. While the discipline often celebrated itself as the study of human diversity, it had also: Helped construct racial hierarchies through physical anthropology Collected human remains—often from Black and Indigeno...