In the 1990s, Star Trek: Voyager inspired me to think about a Native man’s place in the future and to consider what my role might be as an Indigenous scientist. Voyager’s Commander Chakotay was perhaps one of the few times a Native American was spotted in the future and the first time I had ever seen a Native American man or woman in a scientific role, real or fiction. Many times, Natives are portrayed as things of nature. Science and Indigeneity are not often defined within the same realms of understanding. However, Star Trek has made every attempt to represent all people into the future, and the impact of representation within Star Trek has not gone unnoticed. It’s no wonder the show is owed so much credit for inspiring a generation of diverse scientists that we can all see today.
The impact of a cultural tradition like Star Trek cannot be overstated. If you surveyed a sample of scientists, you would find that many science professionals, myself included, discovered our interest in science through science-fiction. For women and people of color, the 1960s Star Trek pushed the boundaries of what was acceptable for U.S. audiences. The show told of a future where women could work alongside men and people of color held positions of authority, which was intentionally not familiar then. Despite the efforts towards inclusiveness, the show has been critiqued for presenting a future envisioned by the dominant society where inclusion was still a foreign and novel concept. Nichelle Nichols, the African American actress who played Lieutenant Uhura and is credited (along with William Shatner) with the first U.S. televised interracial kiss, is also known for speaking out against how she was tokenized for her blackness on set and in production. It was Martin Luther King, Jr. who convinced Ms. Nichols to persevere and continue her role for the importance that it represented. Although nowhere near perfect, her presence on screen has undoubtedly inspired many people of color to see their existence and potential in the future.
Justin Lund working at an archaeological dig
As an anthropologist, I cannot help but consider how shows like Star Trek reflect and shape our society. Anthropologists have studied and documented the stories of cultures, both ancient and modern. We refer to some of these stories as myths, legends, or oral traditions; they can be spoken or written and, at times, they can even be artistic creations. We interrogate these oral (and sometimes written) traditions for insight into social histories, generational messages, human experiences, and moral philosophies. Many oral traditions speak of timeless events that could have been taking place in the past or the future. For those storytellers and audiences, these types of timeless stories represent knowledge production and replication and exude both qualities of historicity and science-fiction.
Narratives that speculate about the future challenge storytellers and audiences to explore the limits of their realities and to apply life experiences to effect change. These narratives are a glimpse into the social imagination of a human future. For the Western world, narratives of future times are called science-fiction. However, the timeless traditions of certain cultures often fall outside the genre.
Similar to how we interrogate Indigenous oral narratives, the same scope can be applied to Western science-fiction traditions. Many scholars and artists have pointed out that science-fiction has developed within a particular social framework that has the potential to continue to present marginalized identities and communities in disrespectful ways. Not only that, but stories about expansions into space often carry a colonial tone where space is the commodity, and its resources are open for pillaging. It should come as no surprise then that space colonialism and imperialism may not reflect a future we all hope for or envision. In response, feminist, Afro-, and Indigenous futurisms attempt to create literary, artistic, and cinematic visions of future times with respect to their communities’ unique histories. The various futurisms center and reflect a history and future inspired by their creators’ social and political ideals.
I believe that most human narratives, mythological or scientific, present a reflection of the storyteller and the audience. Scientific non-fictional narratives are no exception. Academic knowledge values certain questions and research, privileges the experiences and health of certain people, and is often funded by government institutions or private corporations. That social framework imposes boundaries on the knowledge production process that can be implicit and explicit. Knowledges are socially constructed institutions that shape themselves to cultural norms. To point to an interesting example, it was not too long ago that archaeological narratives of the past failed to account for the contributions and experiences of women in any meaningful way. The increase in the number of female archaeologists also brought about an increase in the visibility of women in the ancient past. As society matured through civil rights and women’s movements, archaeology’s understanding of the past became more sophisticated using the expertise and experiences of its newly found membership. Science-fiction is also maturing and evolving to include the voices and perspectives of diverse groups of people.
For these reasons, a class that boldly takes students into fantastic futures full of exploration, encountering new cultures while reflecting on what it means to be human, is an ideal gateway to the field of anthropology. For the past year, I have explored these issues with students in an introductory anthropology class titled The Anthropology of Star Trek at Northern Arizona University. The stories and characters of the Star Trek franchises have been a captivating presentation of space anthropology for nearly 60 years. In this class, we attempt to understand how U.S. culture is reflected in our creations of the future. The Anthro of ST challenges students to use the Star Trek “texts” to explore how present-day and past concerns of society and science are presented to public audiences within a single continuing narrative about the future. Star Trek’s longevity provides ample content for students to analyze and compare recent changes in social dynamics that have become entangled in an idealized on-screen universe. The franchises present a mythos for human existence, a dream for our future. And like any dream, there are often traces of ourselves woven into that story. As a space for present-day anthropological focus, Star Trek represents a collection of narratives, vetted by the public, that expose society’s concerns and interest in language, culture, exploration, and science.
The Anthro of ST course uses Star Trek to present tangible examples of anthropological issues. In fact, the show and certain characters were deeply tied to anthropology: Captain Picard fancied himself an archaeologist, Captain Janeway often commented on genomics, and Captain Sisko was entrenched in the culture and religion of a vulnerable population in the process of recovering from brutal colonization. With the launch of Star Trek: Discovery in 2017, it became clear that the Star Trek universe was not finished commenting on society and our ideal future. The recent additions to the canon have begun to address the critiques of past franchises. The course is designed to give undergraduate anthropology majors a specialized topic to explore and to provide non-anthropology students with examples of the diverse potential of anthropology to help us understand humanity and humanity’s challenges.
The Star Trek course is a space to encourage students to deconstruct and decolonize certain human stories. The Anthropology of Star Trek is more than a “blow off” course and is certainly not an easy ‘A.’ We reflect on the mythos of the dominant society and compare it to our own individual dreams of the future. We explore how all human narratives are shaped by their authors and society. And finally, we apply this knowledge to attempt to understand the future, the past, and our role as anthropologists in the present. So as you can see, Star Trek isn’t just a collection of stories about aliens and space exploration, it’s a fictional tradition that reflects the dreams and values of our society. It has impacted generations with more to come.