WITHDRAWN: Space Anthropology

To discuss space anthropology requires an introduction to set the tone; what is space to anthropology? Anthropology, the discipline of studying humans, turns its lens toward space to reveal the why behind human behavior, but in space. This provides an entirely different contour to humanity even as some concepts remain the same. This happens for several reasons - from what we heap onto space, as part of that collective human consciousness since the first human craned their neck to the stars questioning what's out there or did, we come from there. And more tangibly, we look to astronauts as modern heroes that take extraordinary risk to explore what the entire world understands as the final frontier. The very fact that humans are striving to reach space means that we pack our humanity to deposit it within the unknown. This legacy survives as material culture, conveniently understood as artifacts. Further, we see some of our concepts working, like rockets that can lift and propel us to space. And we see some of our concepts not working; our idea that old space debris will get caught in the earth's gravitational pull and deorbit burning up in our atmosphere upon reentry. But, seeing as this is a real paper, we can't begin like that. We have to situate the why for space anthropology through unfurling the history of space exploration. The recounting will be brief yet focused toward ever so slightly leveraging to elevate an anthropological lens. The goal will then be to provide a case or two for space anthropology and a cursory argument for the study as a formal discipline. As a participant, and contributor to our space program, now ethnographer, holds implicit bias.