2. 3
C H A P T E R
Applying Anthropology
3-2

3. APPLYING ANTHROPOLOGY
The Role of the Applied Anthropologist
Development Anthropology
Strategies for Innovation
Anthropology and Education
Urban Anthropology
Medical Anthropology
Anthropology and Business
Careers and Anthropology 3

4. APPLYING ANTHROPOLOGY
How can change be bad?
How can anthropology be applied to medicine, education, and business?
How can the study of anthropology fit into a career path?

5. Understanding Ourselves
Applied Anthropology
Coca-Cola Company and “New Coke”
Market research
What customers do, think, and want
Determine locally based demand
What is working well should be maintained, encouraged, tweaked, and strengthened
What changes do people – and which people – want?
Innovation succeeds best when it is culturally appropriate!!
Each time an organization expands to a new nation, it must devise a culturally appropriate strategy for fitting into the new setting

6. RECAP 3.1: The Four Subfields and Two Dimensions of Anthropology6

7. Understanding Ourselves
Applied Anthropology versus Academic Anthropology
Use of anthropological data, perspectives, theory, and methods to identify, assess, and solve contemporary problems
Help make anthropology relevant and useful to the world beyond anthropology
Most seek humane and effective ways of helping local people
Many work for groups that promote, manage, and assess programs aimed at influencing human behavior and social conditions, including change and development abroad and social problems and policies in U.S.
Various subfields of applied anthropology:
Medical anthropology
Developmental anth.
Archaeology
Biological anth.
Forensic anth.
Linguistic anth.
Urban anth.

8. Understanding Ourselves
Ethnographic method – valuable tool for applied anthropology
Study societies firsthand: living with, observing, and learning from ordinary people
Participant observation
“Take me to the local peoples”
The people must play and active role in changes that affect them; they have information the “experts” lack
Anthropological theory (body of findings and generalizations of the four subfields) guides applied anthropology
As we compare social change programs, our understanding of cause and effect increases
We then add new generalizations about culture change.

9. THE ROLE OF THE APPLIED ANTHROPOLOGIST
Early application:
Application was central concern of early anthropology in Great Britain (studied colonialism) and U.S. (studied Native Americans)
Connection between early anthropology and colonialism
Malinowski – practical anthropology
Focused on Westernization - diffusion of European culture into tribal societies
Never questioned the legitimacy of colonialism nor the role in making it work
Aided colonial regimes by studying land tenure and land use
Recommended to colonial regimes how much of the native land to keep

10. ACADEMIC AND APPLIED ANTHROPOLOGY
Use of anthropology during WWII
Studied “culture at a distance” (Japanese and German) to predict behavior of enemies
After war, worked in Pacific islands to promote local-level cooperation with American policies
American Anthropological Association (AAA) raised ethical objections to applying anthropology in war zones and for military intelligence
Anthropological research should NOT be applied to the potential detriment of the people they study
Academic anthropology grew most after World War II
New junior, community, and four-year colleges opened
Anthropology became a standard part of the college curriculum

11. Academic and Applied Anthropology
During 50s and 60s most American anthropologists were college professors (some worked in agencies and museums)
During the 70s and 80s, in addition to colleges and museums, anthropologists found jobs with international organizations, government, business, hospitals, and schools
Today, they work in many different contexts, including large development organizations, communities and cultural groups, public institutions, government agencies, NGOs and non-profit organizations…
The shift toward application has forced anthropologists to consider the wider social value and implications of their research

12. APPLIED ANTHROPOLOGY TODAY
Modern anthropology usually seen as helping profession
Speak up for disenfranchised
Highly qualified to suggest, plan, and implement policies affecting people
Identifying needs for change that local people perceive
Working with those people to design culturally appropriate and socially sensitive change
Protecting local people from harmful policies

13. DEVELOPMENT ANTHROPOLOGY
Branch of applied anthropology that focuses on social issues in, and the cultural dimension of, economic development
Not only do they carry out developmental policies planned by others, they also plan and guide policy
Ethical dilemmas often confront development anthropologists
Funding doesn’t usually go where it is most needed
Planners interests don’t always coincide with the best interests of the local people

14. EQUITY
Commonly stated goal of recent development policy is to promote equity
Increased equity: means reduced poverty and more even distribution of wealth
Stated aim of most projects is to enhance quality of life, however, usually living standards decline in the affected area
Some development projects actual
widen wealth disparities; they have a
negative equity impact
Brazil – loans to sailboat owners
but not for non-owners

15. STRATEGIES FOR INNOVATION
Development anthropology can help sort needs of people and fit projects accordingly
Should work collaboratively with local people to assess, and help them realize, their own wishes and need for change
Projects that put people first
consulting with them and responding to their expressed needs
Ensure socially compatible ways to implement

16. Strategies for Innovation
To maximize social and economic benefits, projects must:
Be culturally compatible
Respond to locally perceived needs
Involve men and women in planning and carrying out the changes that affect them
Harness traditional organizations
Be flexible
Example – potters in Afghanistan receiving kiln to increase productivity

17. OVERINNOVATION Avoid overinnovation: trying to achieve too much change
Projects that fail are usually ones that are economically and culturally incompatible
People are usually willing to change just enough to maintain, or slightly improve on, what they already have
Motives for modifying behavior come from the traditional culture, and the small concerns of ordinary life (i.e. productive crops, get a child through school, get resources for ceremony, pay bills)
Example – South Asian project promoting cultivation of onions and peppers
To avoid overinnovation, projects need to be sensitive to the culture and concerns of daily life in the community

18. UNDERDIFFERENTIATION
Avoid underdifferentiation: tendency to view so-called less-developed countries as being more alike than they are
Ignoring cultural diversity, contrasts
Adoption of uniform approach to deal with different sets of people
Imposes incompatible property concepts and social units
Presumes units of production are privately owned and worked by nuclear family (leaving out extended families and social groups)
Tends to emphasize benefits that will accrue to individuals, rather than social groups and communities
Imposes cooperatives that are at least partially based on models from the former Eastern bloc and Socialist countries
Cooperatives tended to succeed only when they harnessed preexisting local-level communal institutions
Participants’ groups are most effective when they are based on traditional social organization or on a socioeconomic similarity among members

19. INDIGENOUS MODELS
Most governments are not really committed to improving the lives of its citizens
Interference by major powers has also kept governments from enacting needed reform
Occasionally, governments act as an agent of people
Madagascar and Malagasy
“Descent groups” organization before the origin
of the state
Creators of state wove descent groups
(ordinary peasant people) into its structure, making members of important groups advisors to the king
Gives common people authority in the government
State collected taxes and organized labor; in return, it redistributed resources to peasants in need, protected against war and slave raids. Maintained water works for rice cultivation
Gave peasant boys chance to work hard and study
Maintained relationship between the individual, descent group, and state

20. Indigenous Models Madagascar (continued)
Madagascar gains political independence in 1960 from France
Government promoted economic development policy aimed at increasing ability of people to feed themselves (subsistence crop rather than cash crop)
Local communities based on kinship and descent, were treated as partners in, not obstacles to development process
Descent groups pooled their resources to educate ambitious members so they can secure positions within the nation/government

21. Indigenous Models Madagascar (continued)
Shows that when government officials are “of the people” (rather than elites), they are more likely to promote democratic economic development
Realistic development promotes change but not overinnovation
Preserves local systems and relations

22. ANTHROPOLOGY AND EDUCATION
Research extends from classrooms into homes and neighborhoods
View children as cultural creatures whose enculturation and attitudes toward education belong to a context that includes family and peers
Observe interaction among teachers, students, parents, and visitors
Students learn to conform to and compete with their peers
Sociolinguists and cultural anthropologists work side by side
Example – ESL classes but no bilingual teachers
Assigned many non-Hispanic students to ESL classes due to low reading scors and behavior problems
Classroom with non-English speaking children, non-Spanish speaking teacher, and students with low scores and behavior problems
Spanish students falling behind in all subjects

23. URBAN ANTHROPOLOGY
Cross-cultural and ethnographic study of urbanization and life in cities
People migrate for economic reasons,
to be where the action is…)
Proportion of world’s population living
in cities has increased since the Industrial
Revolution
50+% lived in cities in 2008
LDCs have highest urbanization
growth rate
Over one billion people live in urban slums, mostly without reliable water, sanitation, public services, and legal security
What happens if trends continue? Where will trends be most severe?

24. Urban versus Rural Applied anthropology approach to urban planning:
starts by identifying key social groups in specific urban contexts
elicit their wishes for change
convey those needs to funding agencies
work with agencies and local people to realize these goals
One role of applied urban anthropologist - to help people deal with urban institutions, such as legal and social services, with which recent migrants might be unfamiliar

25. URBAN VERSUS RURAL Example – Samoan community in Los Angeles
Traditional system of matai (“chief” – respect for elders)
used to deal with modern urban problems
Police shot and killed two unarmed
Samoan brothers; judge dismissed
charges against officer
Local leaders used matai system
to calm angry youth;mclan leaders
and elders organized community meeting
Agreed to use American judicial system

26. Urban versus Rural
Example – Vigil’s examination of gang violence in the context of large scale immigrant adaptation to American cities; evolution of gangs from present

27. MEDICAL ANTHROPOLOGY
Comparative, biocultural study of disease, health problems, and health care systems
Examines which diseases and health conditions affect a particular population, and why
Determines how illness is
socially constructed, diagnosed,
managed, and treated in various
societies
Examines which diseases
and health conditions affect particular populations

28. MEDICAL ANTHROPOLOGY
Disease: scientifically identified health threat caused by a bacterium, virus, fungus, parasite, or other pathogen
Illness: condition of poor health perceived or felt by an individual
Ethnic groups and cultures may recognize different illnesses, symptoms, and causes and have developed different health care systems and treatment strategies

29. Medical Anthropology
3 Steps in Anthropology – to improve the health of indigenous people
Identify their most pressing health problems
Gather information on possible solutions
Implement solutions in partnership with the agencies in charge of public health programs

30. MEDICAL ANTHROPOLOGY
Health standards are cultural constructions that vary in time and space
3 Theories about the cause of illness
Personalistic disease theories: illness blamed on such agents as sorcerers, witches, ghosts, or ancestral spirits (i.e. curse)
Naturalistic disease theories: illness explained in impersonal terms
Western medicine links illness to scientifically demonstrated agents that have no malice toward their victims
Latin cultures that classify food, drink, and environmental conditions as “hot” or “cold”; cannot combine these factors
Emotionalistic disease theories: illness blamed on emotional experiences
Latin Americans may develop “susto”
Susto – illness brought on by anxiety, fright, or tragic news
Madagascar – “soul loss”, similar to susto

31. MEDICAL ANTHROPOLOGY
Health care systems: beliefs, customs, specialists, and techniques aimed at ensuring health and diagnosing and curing illness; differs in various societies
Illness causation is important for treatment!!
All cultures have health care specialists:
Curer: one who diagnoses
and treats illness; often a
shaman/holy man
Doctors/Scientific medicine:
based on scientific knowledge and
procedures
Health care specialists/curers emerge through
a culturally defined process of selection and training

32. MEDICAL ANTHROPOLOGY Western medicine
Advances in technology, genomics, molecular biology, pathology, surgery, diagnostics, and applications
Industrialization and globalization spawned own health problems
Stressors (i.e. noise), air and water pollution, poor nutrition, dangerous machinery, impersonal work, isolation, poverty, homelessness, and substance abuse
Overuse of drugs and tranquilizers
Unnecessary surgery
Impersonality and inequality of the patient-physician relationship
Overuse of antibiotics – triggered the explosion of resistant microorganisms
Better than tribal treatments in many ways:
Thousands of effective drugs
Preventative health care
Safer surgical procedures

33. Medical Anthropology In U.S., good health an ethical imperative
Emphasis on patient compliance
Stigmatizes those who act differently
More personal treatment of illness might benefit Western systems
De-emphasizing relation between biomedical and psychological causation and seeing connection between physical, emotional, and social causes
Medical anthropology considers impact on ideas about life, death, and personhood
Personhood, when life begins, contraception, abortion, and assisted suicide
Stem cells, harvested embryos, assisted reproduction, genetic screening, cloning…

34. ANTHROPOLOGY AND BUSINESS
Anthropologists may acquire unique perspective on organizational conditions and problems
Work as cultural brokers, translating managers’ goals or workers’ concerns for the other group
For business, key features of anthropology include:
Ethnography and observation
Tremendous insight gained if the anthropologist can observe and talk freely with all levels of personnel
Focus on cultural diversity
Cross-cultural expertise

35. Public and Applied Anthropology
Public anthropology (public interest anthropology)
efforts to extend anthropology beyond academia and to demonstrate its public policy relevance
Non-academic publishing, testifying at government hearings, consulting, expert witness, citizen activism, electoral campaigns, political administrations…
Goals are to engage with public issues by opposing policies that promote injustice and by working to reframe discussions of key social issues in the media and by public officials

36. CAREERS AND ANTHROPOLOGY
Anthropology’s breadth provides knowledge and an outlook that are useful in many kinds of work
Breadth is anthropology’s hallmark
Flexible basis for many careers
Knowledge about traditions and beliefs of social groups within a modern nation is important in planning and carrying out programs that affect those groups 36

37. Anthropologists!