Applied and Public

Anthropology
Or, Yes, You Can Get a Job as An
Anthropologist!

What is 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, 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.
Medical Anthropologists work in global health,
epidemiology, international development, hospitals,
clinics

Linguistic anthropologists frequently work

with schools in districts with various languages.

What is the Role of the Applied

Anthropologist?
Three views:
1. The Ivory Tower

2. The Schizoid

3. 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.

Where do most anthropologists work?

Academic Institutions
Non-academic work of
anthropologists:

Corporate America (Intel, Microsoft)

World Bank
US AID
World Health Organization
Bureau of Indian Affairs
NGOs

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
20th 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, anthropologys focus fit with
prevailing social interests, which began the turn
to practical applications.
Anthropologys 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

Anthropology has helped
facilitate accommodation of
cultural differences in
classroom settings.
Examples:
English as a second
language taught to Spanishspeaking 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.

Medical Anthropology
Medical anthropology is
both academic and
applied.
Medical anthropology is
the study of disease and
illness in their
sociocultural context.
Medical anthropologists
can serve in many
different roles.

Anthropology and Business

Anthropologists can provide
unique perspectives on
organizational conditions and
problems within businesses.
Applied anthropologists act 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 micro-cultures.
Anthropologists work professionally in both
academic and non-academic settings.

Article 38: Ethnography in the Public Interest

Describes public interest ethnography as ethnographic
research among people who are affected by policy,
bringing a human face to the impact of policy, and seeks
to empower those affected by it.
Gives example of group of undergraduate students who
interviewed inmates incarcerated in two California State
womens prisons. Their goal was to learn about the
provision of health care from the prisoners perspective.
Armed with the insiders point of view, they produced
recommendations for changes, some of which were
adopted by prison authorities.

Righteous Dopefiend: Chpt. 9 & Conclusion

Details the difficulties one faces to obtain drug treatment
and thereafter maintain a sober lifestyle.
Authors apply their research to real life solutions to the
problems that they saw amongst the people they
studied.
Prescribing methodone and other drugs to users to help better
manage the detrimental affects of heroin withdrawal
Increased funding for treatment and harm reduction services
(mobile psychiatric clinic, mobile abscess clinic, mobile needle
exchange programs)
Eliminating to the War on Drugs (and an emphasis on law
enforcement)
Creating a society that is tolerant towards the difficulties of
struggling with addiction and providing a support system to
assist those struggling