From current-anthropology-skills
Builds the conceptual/theoretical argument of a Current Anthropology manuscript into an agenda-setting, all-fields contribution. Use when data are rich but conceptual payoff is thin, or a reviewer said the paper is undertheorized.
How this skill is triggered — by the user, by Claude, or both
Slash command
/current-anthropology-skills:curranthro-theory-buildingThe summary Claude sees in its skill listing — used to decide when to auto-load this skill
At CA, evidence is not a contribution until it is attached to an **argument other anthropologists can
At CA, evidence is not a contribution until it is attached to an argument other anthropologists can use — and argue with — elsewhere. A Major Article anchors the CA✩ Treatment: international commentators will press the concept, the mechanism, and the scope. So the argument must be bold enough to be worth commenting on and robust enough to survive published critique with the author's Reply still standing. This skill turns fieldwork, material, or measurements into theory: explicit concepts, mechanisms or interpretive logics, scope conditions, and positionality, in the idiom of your subfield.
For a Major Article, run the argument through three imagined Comments before you submit:
curranthro-topic-selection).【Core claim】one sentence
【Concept】the key analytic, defined
【Mechanism / interpretive logic】the social process
【Evidence link】what grounds it / what would disconfirm it
【Positionality】how the author's relation to the field bears on the reading
【Scope + portability】where it holds / who else can use it
【Commentary stress test】answers to the three imagined Comments
【Next】curranthro-research-design
../../resources/external_tools.md — concept-mapping, qualitative-analysis, and comparative tooling../../resources/official-source-map.md — CA scope and intervention expectationsnpx claudepluginhub brycewang-stanford/awesome-journal-skills --plugin current-anthropology-skillsStructures theoretical arguments for American Anthropologist manuscripts by developing portable concepts and reflexive positioning. Use when analysis needs clearer conceptual payoff.
Builds portable theoretical arguments for ASR manuscripts. Defines mechanisms, scope conditions, and concepts across quantitative, ethnographic, comparative-historical, and computational methods.
Positions a Current Anthropology manuscript against the literature for all-fields legibility and transnational citational practice, anticipating CA✩ Treatment commentators.