1. 3
C H A P T E R
Applying Anthropology
3-1

2. APPLYING ANTHROPOLOGY
The Role of the Applied Anthropologist
Development Anthropology
Strategies for Innovation
Anthropology and Education
Urban Anthropology
Medical Anthropology
Anthropology and Business
Careers and Anthropology 2

3. APPLYING ANTHROPOLOGY
How can change be bad?
How can anthropology be applied to medicine, education, and business?
How can the study of anthropology fit into a career path?

4. RECAP 3.1: The Four Subfields and Two Dimensions of Anthropology4

5. THE ROLE OF THE APPLIED ANTHROPOLOGIST
Early application:
Application was central concern of early anthropology in Great Britain and U.S.
Connection between early anthropology and colonialism
Use of anthropology during WWII
Study “culture at a distance”

6. ACADEMIC AND APPLIED ANTHROPOLOGY
Academic anthropology grew most after World War II
During 50s and 60s most American anthropologists were college professors
During the 70s and 80s, some anthropologists found jobs with international organizations, government, business, hospitals, and schools

7. APPLIED ANTHROPOLOGY TODAY
Modern anthropology usually seen as helping profession
Speak up for disenfranchised
Highly qualified to suggest, plan, and implement policies affecting people
Identifying needs for change that local people perceive
Working with those people to design culturally appropriate and socially sensitive change
Protecting local people from harmful policies

8. DEVELOPMENT ANTHROPOLOGY
Branch of applied anthropology that focuses on social issues in, and the cultural dimension of, economic development
Ethical dilemmas often confront development anthropologists

9. EQUITY
Commonly stated goal of recent development policy is to promote equity
Increased equity: means reduced poverty and more even distribution of wealth

10. STRATEGIES FOR INNOVATION
Development anthropology can help sort needs of people and fit projects accordingly
Projects that put people first
Ensure socially compatible ways to implement

11. OVERINNOVATION Avoid overinnovation: trying to achieve too much change
Projects that fail are usually ones that are economically and culturally incompatible

12. UNDERDIFFERENTIATION
Avoid underdifferentiation: tendency to view so-called less-developed countries as being more alike than they are
Ignoring cultural diversity, contrasts
Adoption of uniform approach to deal with different sets of people

13. ANTHROPOLOGY AND EDUCATION
Research extends from classrooms into homes and neighborhoods
View children as cultural creatures whose enculturation and attitudes toward education belong to a context that includes family and peers
Sociolinguists and cultural anthropologists work side by side

14. URBAN ANTHROPOLOGY
Cross-cultural and ethnographic study of urbanization and life in cities
Proportion of world’s population living in cities has increased since the Industrial Revolution

15. URBAN VERSUS RURAL
Robert Redfield: contrasted rural and urban contexts in 1940s
Urban and rural represent different social systems
Applying anthropology to urban planning starts by identifying the key social groups in urban contexts

16. MEDICAL ANTHROPOLOGY
Comparative, biocultural study of disease, health problems, and health care systems
Examines which diseases and health conditions affect a particular population, and why
Determines how illness is socially constructed, diagnosed, managed, and treated in various societies

17. MEDICAL ANTHROPOLOGY
Disease: scientifically identified health threat caused by a bacterium, virus, fungus, parasite, or other pathogen
Illness: condition of poor health perceived or felt by an individual
Ethnic groups and cultures may recognize different illnesses, symptoms, and causes and have developed different health care systems and treatment strategies

18. MEDICAL ANTHROPOLOGY
Health standards are cultural constructions that vary in time and space
Personalistic disease theories: illness blamed on such agents as sorcerers, witches, ghosts, or ancestral spirits
Naturalistic disease theories: illness explained in impersonal terms
Emotionalistic disease theories: illness blamed on emotional experiences (susto)

19. MEDICAL ANTHROPOLOGY
Health care systems: beliefs, customs, specialists, and techniques aimed at ensuring health and diagnosing and curing illness
Curer: one who diagnoses and treats illness; often a shaman
Scientific medicine: based on scientific knowledge and procedures

20. MEDICAL ANTHROPOLOGY Western medicine
Industrialization and globalization spawned own health problems
In U.S., good health an ethical imperative
More personal treatment of illness might benefit Western systems
Medical anthropology considers impact on ideas about life, death, and personhood

21. ANTHROPOLOGY AND BUSINESS
Anthropologists may acquire unique perspective on organizational conditions and problems
Ethnography and observation
Focus on cultural diversity
Cross-cultural expertise

22. CAREERS AND ANTHROPOLOGY
Anthropology’s breadth provides knowledge and an outlook that are useful in many kinds of work
Breadth is anthropology’s hallmark
Knowledge about traditions and beliefs of social groups within a modern nation is important in planning and carrying out programs that affect those groups 22