Applied Anthropology? Or, Yes, You Can Get a Job as An Anthropologist! (modified from McGraw-Hill 2004)

What is Applied Anthropology?  Applied Anthropology refers to the application of anthropological data, perspectives, theory, and methods to identify, assess, and solve social problems.  Applied anthropologists work for groups that promote, manage, and assess programs aimed at influencing human social conditions.

Types of Applied Anthropology  Applied anthropologist come from all four subfields  Biological anthropologists work in public health, nutrition, genetic counseling, substance abuse, epidemiology, aging, mental illness, and forensics.  Applied archaeologists locate, study, and preserve prehistoric and historic sites threatened by development (Cultural Resource Management).

More Applied Anthropology  Cultural anthropologists work with social workers, businesspeople, advertising professionals, factory workers, medical professionals, school personnel, and economic development experts.  Linguistic anthropologists frequently work with schools in districts with various languages.

What is the Role of the Applied Anthropologist?  Three views:  The Ivory Tower  The Schizoid  The Advocate

What is the Role of the Applied Anthropologist?  The “ivory tower” view contends that anthropologists should avoid practical matters and focus on research, publication, and teaching.

What is the Role of the Applied Anthropologist?  The “schizoid” view is that anthropologists should carry out, but not make or criticize, policy.

What is the Role of the Applied Anthropologist?  The “advocacy” view argues that since anthropologists are experts on human problems and social change, they should make policy affecting people.

Jobs for Applied Anthropologists  Professional anthropologists work for a wide variety of employers: tribal and ethnic associations, governments, nongovernmental organizations, etc.  During World War II, anthropologists worked for the U.S. government to study Japanese and German culture.

Responsibilities of the Anthropologist  The primary ethical obligation of the anthropologist is to the people, species, or materials he or she studies.  Researchers must respect the safety, dignity, and privacy of the people, species, or materials studied.  Researchers must obtain the informed consent of the people to be studied.

Responsibility to Scholarship and Science  Anthropologists should expect to encounter ethical dilemmas during their work.  Anthropologists are responsible for the integrity and reputation of their discipline, or scholarship, and of science.  Researchers should disseminate their findings to the scientific and scholarly community.

Responsibility to the Public  Researchers should make their results available to sponsors, students, decision makers, and other nonanthropologists.  Anthropologists may move beyond disseminating research results to a position of advocacy.

Academic and Applied Anthropology  Academic anthropology had its beginning in the early 20 th century (Kroeber, Malinowski, Boas).  After World War II, the “baby boom” fueled the growth of the American educational system and anthropology, fostering the further growth of academic anthropology.

The Spread of Applied Anthropology  Applied anthropology began to grow in the 1970s as anthropologists found jobs with international organizations, governments, businesses, and schools.  The National Historic Preservation Act of 1966 resulted in the new field of cultural resource management.

The Pragmatism of Cultural Anthropology  In the 1960s, anthropology’s focus fit with prevailing social interests, which began the turn to practical applications.  Anthropology’s ethnographic method, holism, and systemic perspective make it uniquely valuable in applications to social problems.

Applications of Cultural Anthropology  Applied cultural anthropology has excelled in four areas in particular:  Education  Urban social issues  Medicine  Business

Anthropology and Education  In particular, anthropology has help facilitate the accommodation of cultural differences in classroom settings.  Examples include English as a second language taught to Spanish-speaking students; different, culturally based reactions to various pedagogical techniques.

Urban Anthropology  Human populations are becoming increasingly urban.  Urban anthropology is a cross-cultural and ethnographic study of global urbanization and life in the cities.

Urban vs. Rural  Robert Redfield was an early student of the differences between the rural and urban contexts.  Various instances of urban social forms are given as examples (Kampala, Uganda) social networks in particular.

Medical Anthropology  Medical anthropology is both academic (theoretical) and applied (practical).  Medical anthropology is the study of disease and illness in their sociocultural context.  Disease is a scientifically defined ailment.  Illness is an ailment as experienced and perceived by the sufferer.

Disease and World Development  The spread of certain diseases, like malaria and schistosomiasis, have been associated with population growth and economic development.

The Three Theories of Illness  Personalistic disease theories blame illness on agents such as sorcerers, witches, ghosts, or ancestral spirits.  Naturalisitc disease theories explain illness in impersonal terms (e.g., Western medicine).  Emotionalistic disease theories assume emotional experiences cause illness (e.g., susto among Latino populations).

Health-Care Systems and Specialists  All societies have health-care systems.  Health-care systems consist of beliefs, customs, specialists, and techniques aimed at ensuring health and preventing, diagnosing, and treating illness.  Health cares specialists include curers, shamans, and doctors.

What Have We Learned from Non-Western Medicine?  Non-Western systems of medicine are often more successful at treating mental illness than Western medicine.  They often explain mental illness by causes that are easier to identify and combat.  Non-Western systems of medicine diagnose and treat the mentally ill in cohesive groups with full support of their kin.

The Down-side of Western Medicine  Despite its advances, Western medicine has problems.  Overprescription of drugs and tranquilizers.  Unnecessary surgery.  Impersonality and inequality of the patient- physician relationship.  Overuse of antibiotics.

Medical Development  Like economic development, medical development must fit into local systems of health care.  Medical anthropologists can serve as cultural interpreters between local systems and Western medicine.

Anthropology and Business  Anthropologists can provide unique perspectives on organizational conditions and problems within businesses.  Applied anthropologists have acted as “cultural brokers” in translating managers’ goals or workers’ concerns to the other group.  For business, key features of anthropology include ethnography, cross-cultural expertise, and focus on cultural diversity.

Careers in Anthropology  Because of its breadth, a degree in anthropology may provide a flexible basis for many different careers.  Other fields, such as business, have begun to recognize the worth of such anthropological concepts as microcultures.  Anthropologists work professionally as consultants to indigenous groups at risk from external systems.