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, 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
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.