ANT 101: Introduction to Anthropology

Lesson-7
Topic: Applying Anthropology
Key Reading: Kottak, C. P. (2015) Ch-4

Bokhtiar Ahmed
Professor, Anthropology
Department of Social Science and Humanities, IUB
Key Questions

´ Can we apply anthropological knowledge in real life?

´ How anthropology has been applied historically?
´ Can anthropology change our life?
´ What are the key areas of applied anthropology?
´ How does the study of anthropology fit into a career path?
´ What anthropology can add to an engineering, business or life science
career?
 Two Dimensions of Anthropology: Academic and Applied
´ Anthropology has two dimensions: academic and applied. Applied anthropology is the use of anthropological data,
perspectives, theory, and methods to identify, assess, and solve contemporary problems. Applied anthropologists help
make anthropology relevant and useful to the world beyond anthropology. Most applied anthropologists seek
humane and effective ways of helping local people. Examples:
´ Medical anthropologists, for example, have worked as cultural interpreters in public health programs, helping such
programs fit into local culture.
´ Development anthropologists work for or with international development agencies, such as the World Bank and the
United States Agency for Inter- national Development (USAID)
´ The findings of garbology, the archaeological study of waste, are relevant to the Environmental Protection Agency, the
paper industry, and pack- aging and trade associations.
´ Archaeology also is applied in cultural resource management and historic preservation.
´ Biological anthropologists apply their expertise in programs aimed at public health, nutrition, genetic counselling, aging,
substance abuse, and mental health.
´ Forensic anthropologists work with the police, medical examiners, the courts, international organizations to identify
victims of crimes, accidents, wars, and terrorism.
´ Linguistic anthropologists have studied physician–patient speech interactions and have shown how dialect differences
influence classroom learning.
 Using Ethnography and Anthropological Theories

´ The ethnographic method is a particularly valu- able tool in applying anthropology. Remember that
ethnographers study societies firsthand, living with, observing, and learning from ordinary people. Non-
anthropologists working in social-change programs often are content to converse with officials, read reports, and
copy statistics. However, the applied anthropologist’s likely early request is some variant of “take me to the local
people.” Anthropologists know that people must play an active role in the changes that affect them and that “the
people” have information that “the experts” lack.
´ Anthropological theory, the body of findings and generalizations of the four subfields, also guides applied
anthropology. Just as theory aids practice, application fuels theory. As we compare social change programs, our
understanding of cause and effect increases. We add new generalizations about culture change to those
discovered in traditional and ancient cultures.
 Early Use of Anthropological Knowledge
´ Application was a central concern of early anthropology in Great Britain (in the context of colonialism) and the United States (in
the context of Native American policy). Before turning to the new, we should consider some deficiencies and dangers of the old.
´ For the British empire, specifically its African colonies, Bronislaw Malinowski (1929) proposed that “practical anthropology”
(his term for colonial applied anthropology) should focus on Westernization, the diffusion of European culture into tribal
societies. Malinowski questioned neither the legitimacy of colonialism nor the anthropologist’s role in making it work. He saw
nothing wrong with aiding colonial regimes by studying land tenure and land use, to recommend how much of their land local
people should be allowed to keep and how much Europeans should be permitted to take. Malinowski’s views exemplify a
historical association between early anthropology, particularly in Europe (especially England, France, and Portugal), and
colonialism.
´ We are never short of evidences on how early anthropology was mostly an academic tradition devoted to colonial form of
knowledge production. During World War II, American anthropologists studied Japanese and German “culture at a distance” in
an attempt to predict the behavior of the enemies of the United States. Margaret Mead (1977) estimated that during the 1940s, 95
percent of U.S. anthropologists were engaged in the war effort. After that war, applied anthropologists worked on Pacific islands
to promote local-level cooperation with American policies in various trust territories.
´ The American Anthropological Association (AAA) has raised strong ethical objections to applying anthropology in war zones
and for military intelligence. Such concerns were voiced during the Vietnam War. More recently they have emerged in criticisms
of anthropologists’ gathering sociocultural information for the military in Iraq and Afghanistan. Anthropological research should
not be applied to the potential detriment of the people anthropologists study.
 Applied Anthropology Today
´ Most contemporary applied anthropologists see their work as radically removed from the colonial enterprise. Applied
anthropology today usually is seen as a helping profession, devoted to assisting local people. According to Barbara
Rylko-Bauer, Merrill Singer, and John van Willigen (2006), mod- ern applied anthropology uses theories, concepts,
and methods from anthropology to confront human problems that often contribute to profound social suffering.
´ However, applied anthropologists also have clients who are neither poor nor powerless. An applied anthropologist
working as a market researcher may be concerned with discovering how to increase sales of a particular product.
Such commercial goals can pose ethical dilemmas, as can work in cultural resource management (CRM).
´ The CRM anthropologist helps decide how to preserve significant remains when sites are threatened by development
or public works. A CRM firm typically is hired by someone seeking to build a road or a factory. That client may have
a strong interest in an outcome in which no sites are found that need protecting. Even if they don’t work for colonial
powers or the military, applied anthropologists still face ethical questions: To whom does the researcher owe loyalty?
What problems are involved in holding firm to the truth? What happens when applied anthropologists don’t make the
policies they have to implement? How does one criticize programs in which one has participated? Anthropology’s
professional organizations have addressed such questions by establishing codes of ethics and ethics committees. As
Karen Tice (1997) has noted, attention to ethical issues has become paramount in the teaching of applied
anthropology.
 Applying Anthropology in Policy and Planning
´ Anthropologists are experts on human problems and social change who study, understand, and respect diverse
cultural values. Given this back- ground, anthropologists are highly qualified to suggest, plan, and implement
policies affecting people. Proper roles for applied anthropologists include:
´ identifying needs for change that local people perceive,
´ collaborating with those people to design culturally appropriate and socially sensitive change, and
´ working to protect local people from harmful policies and projects that may threaten them.
´ For decades applied anthropologists have collaborated directly with communities to achieve community-directed
change (Rylko-Bauer et al. 2006). Applied anthropologists not only work collaboratively with local people but
may even be hired by such communities in order to advocate on their behalf. One example is Barbara Rose
Johnston’s (2005) research commissioned by communities that were adversely affected by the construction of the
Chixoy Dam in Guatemala. Johnston’s reports document the dam’s long-term impact on these communities. She
also offered recommendations and a plan for reparations.
 Anthropology in Development: Evil Twins?
´ Development anthropology is the branch of applied anthropology that focuses on social issues in, and the cultural
dimension of, economic development. Development anthropologists don’t just carry out development policies
planned by others; they also plan and guide policy.
´ Still, ethical dilemmas often confront development anthropologists (Escobar 1991, 1995; Venkatesan and Yarrow
2012). Foreign aid, including funds for eco- nomic development, usually doesn’t go where need and suffering are
greatest. Rather, such funds are spent on political, economic, and strategic priorities as international donors,
political leaders, and powerful interest groups perceive them. Planners’ interests don’t always coincide with the best
interests of the local people. Although the stated aim of most development projects is to enhance the quality of life,
living standards often decline in the affected area.
´ A commonly stated goal of recent development policy is to promote equity. Increased equity means reduced
poverty and a more even distribution of wealth. However, if projects are to increase equity, they must have the
support of reform-minded governments. Wealthy and powerful people typically resist projects that threaten their
vested interests.
´ Some development projects actually widen wealth disparities; that is, they have a negative equity impact. An initial
uneven distribution of resources often becomes the basis for even greater socioeconomic inequality after the
project.
 Innovation and Overinnovation in Development

´ Development anthropologists should work collaboratively with local people to assess, and help them realize, their
own wishes and needs for change. Too many true local needs cry out for a solution to waste money funding
projects in area A that are inappropriate there but needed in area B, or that are unnecessary anywhere.
Development anthropology can help sort out the needs of the As and Bs and fit projects accordingly. Projects that
put people first by consulting with them and responding to their expressed needs must be identified.
´ To maximize social and economic benefits, projects must (1) be culturally compatible, (2) respond to locally
perceived needs, (3) involve men and women in planning and carrying out the changes that affect them, (4)
harness traditional organizations, and (5) be flexible.
´ Development projects are most likely to succeed when they avoid the fallacy of overinnovation (too much
change). People usually are 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.
Peasants’ values are not such abstract ones as “learning a better way,” “progressing,” “increasing technical know-
how,” “improving efficiency,” or “adopting modern techniques.” Rather, their objectives are down-to- earth and
specific. People want to guarantee the productivity of their crops, amass resources for a ceremony, get a child
through school, or have enough cash to pay bills. The goals and values of subsistence producers differ from those
of people who work for cash, just as they differ from those of development planners. Development projects that
fail usually are either economically or culturally incompatible (or both).
 Innovation and Overinnovation in Development

´ Development anthropologists should work collaboratively with local people to assess, and help them realize, their
own wishes and needs for change. Too many true local needs cry out for a solution to waste money funding
projects in area A that are inappropriate there but needed in area B, or that are unnecessary anywhere.
Development anthropology can help sort out the needs of the As and Bs and fit projects accordingly. Projects that
put people first by consulting with them and responding to their expressed needs must be identified.
´ To maximize social and economic benefits, projects must (1) be culturally compatible, (2) respond to locally
perceived needs, (3) involve men and women in planning and carrying out the changes that affect them, (4)
harness traditional organizations, and (5) be flexible.
´ Development projects are most likely to succeed when they avoid the fallacy of overinnovation (too much
change). People usually are 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.
Peasants’ values are not such abstract ones as “learning a better way,” “progressing,” “increasing technical know-
how,” “improving efficiency,” or “adopting modern techniques.” Rather, their objectives are down-to- earth and
specific. People want to guarantee the productivity of their crops, amass resources for a ceremony, get a child
through school, or have enough cash to pay bills. The goals and values of subsistence producers differ from those
of people who work for cash, just as they differ from those of development planners. Development projects that
fail usually are either economically or culturally incompatible (or both).
 The Problem of Under-differentiation & Indigenous Model

´ The fallacy of underdifferentiation is planners’ tendency to view “the less-developed countries” (LDCs) as more alike than
they are. Often development agencies have ignored huge cultural contrasts (e.g., between Brazil and Burundi) and adopted a
uniform approach to deal with very different societies. Planners often try to impose incompatible property concepts and social
units. Most often, the faulty social design assumes either:
´ units of production that are privately owned by an individual or a couple and worked by a nuclear family or
´ cooperatives that are at least partially based on models from the former Eastern bloc and Socialist countries.
´ An alternative to such foreign models is needed: greater use of indigenous social models in economic development. These are
traditional social units, such as the clans, lineages, and other extended kin groups of Africa, Oceania, and many other nations,
with their communally held estates and resources. The most humane and productive strategy for change is to base the social
design for innovation on traditional social forms in each target area.
´ Indigenous Model: Many governments are not genuinely, or realistically, committed to improving the lives of their citizens.
Interference by major powers also has kept governments from enacting needed reforms. Occasionally, however, a government
does act as an agent of and for its people. Realistic development policies promote change but not overinnovation. Many
changes are possible if the aim is to preserve things while making them work better. Successful economic development projects
respect, or at least don’t attack, local cul- tural patterns. Effective development draws on indigenous cultural practices and
social structures. As nations become more tied to the world capitalist economy, it is not inevitable that indigenous forms of
social organization will break down into nuclear family organization, impersonality, and alienation. Descent groups, with their
traditional communalism and solidarity, have important roles to play in eco- nomic development.
 Applying Anthropology: Education

´ Attention to culture also is fundamental to anthropology and education, a field whose research extends from
classrooms into homes, neighbourhoods, and communities. In classrooms, anthropologists have observed
interactions among teachers, students, parents, and visitors. Anthropologists view children as total cultural
creatures whose enculturation and attitudes toward education belong to a context that includes family and peers.
´ Sociolinguists and cultural anthropologists have worked side by side in education research.
 Applying Anthropology: Cities and Urban Lifeways

´ The percentage of the world’s population living in cities surpassed 50 percent for the first time in 2008 and is
projected to rise to 70 percent by 2050. Only about 3 percent of people were city dwellers in 1800, compared with
13 percent in 1900, 40 percent in 1980, and over 50 percent today (Handwerk 2008).
´ The degree of urbanization (29.2 percent) in the less-developed countries (LDCs) is well below the world average
(50.5 per- cent). By 2030, however, the percentage of city dwellers in the LDCs is projected to rise to 41 per-
cent. The urbanization growth rate is actually much faster in the LDCs. In Africa and Asia alone, a million people
a week migrate to cities (Handwerk 2008). The world had only 16 cities with more than a million people in 1900,
versus over 400 such cities today.
´ As industrialization and urbanization spread globally, anthropologists increasingly study these processes and the
social problems they create. Urban anthropology, which has theoretical (basic research) and applied dimensions,
is the cross-cultural and ethnographic study of urbanization and life in cities.
´ An applied anthropology approach to urban planning starts by identifying key social groups in specific urban
contexts—avoiding the fallacy of underdifferentiation. After identifying those groups, the anthropologist might
elicit their wishes for change, convey those needs to funding agencies, and work with agencies and local people
to realize those goals.
´ One role for the urban applied anthropologist is to help people deal with urban institutions, such as legal and
social services, with which recent migrants may be unfamiliar.
 Applying Anthropology: Health and Illness

´ Medical anthropology is the comparative, biocultural study of disease, health problems, and health care systems. Both
academic and applied, medical anthropology includes anthropologists from all four subfields. Medical anthropology emerged
out of applied work done in public health and international development.
´ Current medical anthropology continues to have clear policy applications, partly because it so often deals with pressing human
problems that cry out for solutions. Medical anthropologists examine such questions as which diseases and health conditions
affect particular populations (and why) and how illness is socially or culturally constructed, diagnosed, managed, and treated in
various societies.
´ Disease refers to a scientifically identified health threat caused genetically or by a bacterium, virus, fungus, parasite, or other
pathogen.
´ Illness is a condition of poor health perceived or felt by an individual within a particular culture. Various cultures and ethnic
groups recognize different illnesses, symptoms, and causes and have developed different health care systems and treatment
strategies.
´ The world system and colonialism worsened the health of indigenous peoples by spreading diseases, warfare, servitude, and
other stressors.
´ Certain diseases, and physical conditions such as obesity, have spread with economic development and globalization
´ All societies have health care systems consisting of beliefs, customs, specialists, and techniques aimed at ensuring health and
diagnosing and curing illness. A society’s illness-causation theory is important for treatment. When illness has a personalistic
cause, magicoreligious specialists may be effective curers.
 Applying Anthropology: Business and Market Systems

´ For decades anthropologists have used ethnography to understand corporate settings and business. Ethnographic
research in a factory, for example, may view workers, managers, and executives as different social categories
participating in a common system. Each group has characteristic attitudes and behavior patterns. These are
transmitted through microenculturation, the process by which people learn particular roles within a limited social
system. The free-ranging nature of ethnography can take the anthropologist back and forth from worker to
executive. Each employee is both an individual with a personal view- point and a cultural creature whose
perspective is, to some extent, shared with other members of his or her group. Applied anthropologists have acted
as “cultural brokers,” translating managers’ goals or workers’ concerns to the other group.
´ Carol Taylor (1987) has stressed the value of an “anthropologist-in-residence” in a large, complex organization,
such as a hospital or corporation.
´ Key features of anthropology that are of value to business include (1) ethnography and observation as ways of
gathering data, (2) a focus on diversity, and (3) cross-cultural expertise. Businesses have heard that
anthropologists are specialists on cultural diversity and the observation of behavior. Hallmark Cards has hired
anthropologists to observe parties, holidays, and celebrations of ethnic groups to improve its ability to design
cards for targeted audi- ences. Applied anthropologists routinely go into people’s homes to see how they actually
use products.

´
 Applying Anthropology for the ‘Public’

´ public anthropology: Efforts to extend anthropology’s visibility beyond academia and to demonstrate its public
policy relevance.
´ public anthropology or public interest anthropology suggests ways of making anthropology more visible and
relevant to the public include non-academic publishing, testifying at government hearings, consulting, acting as
an expert witness, and engaging in citizen activism, electoral campaigns, and political administrations. The stated
goals of public anthropology 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.
´ New media are helping to disseminate anthropological knowledge to a wider public. The complete world of
cyberspace, including the blogosphere, constantly grows richer in the resources and communication opportunities
available to anthropologists.

´
 Career Trends in Anthropology

• After World War II, the baby boom, which began in 1946 and peaked in 1957, fuelled a tremendous expansion of the American
educational system. New junior, community, and four-year colleges opened, and anthropology became a standard part of the
college curriculum. During the 1950s and 1960s, most American anthropologists were college professors, although some still
worked in agencies and museums.
• Most anthropologists still worked in colleges and museums during the 1970s and 1980s. However, an increasing number of
anthropologists were employed by international organizations, governments, businesses, hospitals, and schools.
• Today, applied anthropologists work in extremely varied contexts, including large development organizations, communities and
cultural groups, public institutions, government agencies, NGOs and non-profit organizations, international policy bodies, and
private entities, such as unions, social movements, and increasingly corporations (Rylko-Bauer et al. 2006).
• The AAA estimates that well over half of anthropology PhDs today seek non-academic employment. This shift toward
application has benefited the profession. It has forced anthropologists to consider the wider social value and implications of
their research.
• A broad college education, and even a major in anthropology, can be an excellent foundation for success in many fields (see
Stephens 2002). One survey of women executives showed that most had majored not in business but in the social sciences or
humanities. Only after graduating from college did they study business, leading to an MBA, a master’s degree in business
administration. These executives felt that the breadth of their college educations had contributed to their business careers.
• Anthropology majors go on to medical, law, and business schools and find success in many professions that often have little
explicit connection to anthropology.