Applied and Public Anthropology Or, Yes, You Can Get a Job as An Anthropologist!
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 non-
anthropologists.
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 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.
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