Anthropology is the study of the human species and its immediate
ancestors.
Anthropology is holistic in that it is concerned with studying the
whole of the human condition: past, present and future; biology, society,
language, and culture.
Anthropology offers a unique cross-cultural perspective by constantly
comparing the customs of one society with those of others.
Anthropology
The four subdisciplines of American anthropology
Cultural anthropologists study human society and culture.
Ethnography (based on fieldwork) provides an account of a
particular community, society, or culture.
Ethnology examines, analyzes, and compares the results of
ethnography.
Archaeological anthropology reconstructs, describes, and interprets
human behavior and cultural patterns through material remains.
Biological, or physical, anthropology is concerned with human
biological diversity across time and space.
Hominid evolution
Human genetics
Human biological plasticity
Primatology
Linguistic anthropologists study present languages and make inferences
about those of the past.
American anthropology has two dimensions.
Academic or theoretical anthropology
Applied anthropology, which involves the application of anthropological
data, perspectives, theory, and methods to identify, assess, and solve
contemporary social problems.
Applying Anthropology
Applied anthropologists work for groups that promote, manage, and
assess programs aimed at influencing human behavior and social conditions.
Applied anthropologists come from all four subfields of anthropology.
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).
Cultural anthropologists work with social workers, businesspeople,
advertising professionals, factory workers, nurses, physicians, gerontologists,
mental-health professionals, and economic development experts.
Linguistic anthropology is important in education, because knowledge
of linguistic differences is important in an increasingly multicultural
society whose populace grows up speaking many languages and dialects.
The Role of the Applied Anthropologist
Because anthropologists are experts on human problems and social
change, and because they study, understand, and respect cultural values,
they are highly qualified to suggest, plan, and implement policy affecting
people.
Proper roles for applied anthropologists include:
Identifying locally perceived needs for change.
Working with local people to design culturally appropriate
and socially sensitive change.
Protecting local people from harmful policies and projects.
Modern applied anthropology differs from an earlier version that
mainly served the goals of colonial regimes.
Academic and Applied Anthropology
Academic anthropology expanded after World War II, when the baby
boom fueled the growth of the American educational system.
Students' interest in anthropology increased especially during the
Vietnam War, when many anthropologists protested the superpowers' disregard
for "Third World" peoples.
Applied anthropology began to grow in the 1970s, with many anthropologists
finding jobs with international organizations, governments, businesses,
hospitals, and schools.
Theory and Practice
Anthropology's ethnographic method, holism, and systemic perspective
make it uniquely valuable in addressing social problems.
Applied anthropologists are more likely to adopt a local, grassroots
perspective in approaching a problem than to consult with officials
and experts.
Anthropology and Education
Anthropology and education refers to anthropological research in
classrooms, homes, and neighborhoods.
Anthropological research highlights the need to accommodate cultural
differences in the classroom, because children's attitudes toward education
and reactions to various pedagogical techniques are shaped by their cultural
backgrounds.
Urban Anthropology
Human populations are becoming increasingly urban.
Urban anthropology is the cross-cultural and ethnographic study of
global urbanization and life in cities.
Urban versus Rural
Robert Redfield was an early student of the differences between
rural and urban contexts.
Cultural diffusion or borrowing occurs as people, products, and
messages move between urban and rural social systems.
The most humane and productive strategies for change, whether
in a rural or an urban context, build upon existing social forms,
such as kin-based ethnic associations, occupational groups, social
clubs, religious groups, and burial societies.
Medical Anthropology
Medical anthropology has both academic (theoretical) and applied
(practical) dimensions, and includes both biological and sociocultural
anthropologists.
Medical anthropology focuses on issues such as which diseases affect
different populations, how illness is socially constructed, and how one
treats illness in effective and culturally appropriate ways.
Disease is a scientifically identified health threat.
Illness is a condition of poor health perceived or felt by an
individual.
The incidence of different diseases varies among societies, and cultures
interpret and treat illness differently.
There are three basic theories about the causes of illnesses.
Personalistic disease theories blame illness on agents such as
sorcerers, witches, ghosts, or ancestral spirits.
Naturalistic disease theories explain illness in impersonal terms
(e.g. Western biomedicine, which attributes illness to organisms,
accidents, or toxic materials).
Emotionalistic disease theories assume emotional experiences
cause illness (e.g., susto among Latino populations).
Health-care Systems
All societies have health-care systems consisting of beliefs,
customs, specialists, and techniques aimed at ensuring health and
preventing, diagnosing, and treating illness.
All cultures have health-care specialists (e.g. curers, shamans,
doctors) who emerge through a culturally defined process of selection
and training.
Western versus non-Western Medicine
Western medicine (biomedicine) surpasses non-Western medicine
in many ways, including drug treatments, preventive health care, and
surgery.
Despite its advances, Western medicine is not without its problems,
including over-prescription of drugs and tranquilizers, unnecessary
surgery, the impersonality and inequality of the patient-physician
relationship, and overuse of antibiotics.
One advantage of non-Western medicine is that it usually does
not make a sharp distinction between biological and psychological
causation, recognizing that poor health has intertwined physical,
emotional, and social causes.
Medical Development
Successful health interventions must fit into local cultures
and be accepted by local people.
Medical anthropologists can serve as cultural interpreters in
public health programs, which must pay attention to native theories
about the nature, causes, and treatment of illness.
Anthropology and Business
Anthropologists who study business settings, or who are employed
by companies, may acquire a unique perspective on organizational conditions
and problems; act as "cultural brokers," translating the goals of executives/managers
or the concerns of workers to the other group; or even study how consumers
with different cultural backgrounds use products.
For business, key features of anthropology include: (1) ethnography
and observation as ways of gathering data, (2) cross-cultural expertise,
and (3) focus on cultural diversity.
Careers and Anthropology
Anthropology's breadth provides knowledge and an outlook on the world
that are useful in many kinds of work.
Anthropology majors go on to medical, law, and business schools and
find success in many professions that often have little explicit connection
to anthropology.
Box: Hot Asset in Corporate: Anthropology Degrees
This article discusses how people with anthropology degrees are finding
employment in business due to the importance of observing how consumers
choose and use products.
Companies are turning more frequently to anthropologists to gather
data about the preferences of consumers.
