Download THE SOCIETY FOR APPLIED ANTHROPOLOGY

THE SOCIETY FOR APPLIED ANTHROPOLOGY
SAN FRANCISCO 2000
APPLIED ANTHROPOLOGY : THE "BLACK DUCK" OF HUMAN SCIENCES ?
A. A TRADITIONNAL VIEW OF APPLIED ANTHROPOLOGY
Michel Panoff and Michel Perrin present applied anthropology as a "problematic concept". They
define "applied anthropology" under the following terms : "practical use of anthropological
theories and results of ethnographic surveys with the objectives to manipulate societies, to
administrate people (colonial policies, not-free cultural change), to help people to be involved in
our society (planned development, integration policy) or to develop a microsociety in a syncretic
way). In all cases, applied anthropology meets the problem of finality of goals and values in one
society; the methodology is always focussed on an ethnocentric pattern. That is why different
anthropologists are reluctant in regards to this non scientific approach and only are open to a
medical help to the societies they study" (Panoff and Perrin, 1973:23).
Under this scope, is "applied anthropology" the ugly duck, the different duck, the "black duck" of
human sciences ?
It is true that the misunderstandings and errors of European colonial practices are a heavy burden.
It is true that Belgium has been unable to create an adapted way to develop Zaire.
But those times are gone (even if central Africa still lices the countereffects of this period) and it
is usefull to see applied anthropology in a post-colonial context.
S.F.Nadel underlined this potential open mind in the fifties, writing that the colonial framework is
just a part of a more exhaustive content(1953:54-55). The same view is shared by C.M.Arensberg
and A.H. Niehoff in their definition of a deontology code for anthropologists with the goal to
avoid different crashes in the field of social control(1978:76).
Bert.F.hoselitz demonstrates that the Sol Tax surveys in the thirties and fourties have a non direct
objective of social local development by studying the processs decision making in the economy.In
the introduction to Sal Tax book concerning Panajachel (Guatemala), Hoselitz wrote : "This book
contains no development plan. As a matter of fact, the author avoid to use the survey results to
propone some development for the future of the Panajachel area. But on the basis of those
descriptions and being helped by some information concerning the economy of Guatemala, such
conclusions appear quickly"(Tax,1964:19).
He sees Sol Tax book as a diagnosis (pining the point on the weaknesses of the people in the
educationnal and technical capacities skills). This consideration opens the door to a feasibility
study on the necessity to add external resources coming from abroad.
In France, Roger Bastide wrote on the same theme : he sees applied anthropology more as a
methodology and less as a political tool (1979:44).
He remarks that applied anthropology is born under the scope of development and cultural
changes. But, in his mind, technics and methods used by applied anthropology are valid.
The problem is not in the field of the methodology, but well in the political use of the surveys
results.
The methodology, the technics and methods of applied anthropology must not be thrown away,
but it is usefull to fight against the normative and coercive use of applied anthropology. Applied
anthropology must be a way to free people and to promote social welfare.
Applied anthropology is not a "hasardous bet" creating problems to a population.
In a way, applied anthropology and social work meet the same problems and the same critics.
According to Jacqueline Verdes-Leroux, those methods may have been used to implement a more
rational society, to eliminate the deviants, the out-groups and the dropouts in the framework of
one society presenting a unique pattern of the so-called "normality" (1978:259).
This confusion of practice and policy have caused the rejection of applied anthropology in
Western Europe after the sixties.
The fact is, for example, that they are a decreasing number of books and articles published since
the sixties. This methodology has been seen as a "black duck", a kind of false scientific tool used
by the settlers in Africa. After the sixties, to use applied antropology references was the risk to be
seen as a "neocolonislist".
The context is a little bit different in the USA under the scope of the field practices of applied
anthropology, even if some criticisms have touched different projects concerning the Indians
reservations.
But, in a way, applied anthropology in the USA has found a much larger field of applications, has
learned to diversify the themes and projects, not in Europe.
B. A NEW LOOK FOR APPLIED ANTHROPOLOGY
Today, applied anthropology is touched by the development of an ethics. It is usefull to underline
the effect of post-modernist and interpretative anthropology on that framework. Agneta M.
Johansen gives a new voice to ethnography (to hear people) and to the fact to induce grassroots
needs and will in different applied projects(1992:74). This kind of applied anthropology has also a
new role : to help people to resolve their own problems as showned by Halper and Nudelman
researches in Israel in the struggle against AIDS (1993).
Different trends of applied anthropology as quoted by John Van Willigen(1986) partly define the
action of the so-called "applied anthropologists" but, as underlined by the Washingon DC
association of anthropologists, the methodology is in a way replaced by the title of the acting
person : audit, consultant, social analyst, project manager, research director, development agent...
Those specialists work in an incredible number of fields : farming, human resources development,
education, energy, army, new technologies, urban development...
Applied anthropology appears now as the use of methodologies and technics in the framework of
a social change project.
A good example of this new look applied anthropology appears in the study of Rizo(1988)
concerning drug addiction. The first step is to hear people, to understand the "drug cultural
pattern" before to act.
Applied anthropology is no more the "black duck", but well a kind of "hidden duck". Some field
workers use it but are not called "applied anthropologist". A good question could be : is it possible
to see, since the creation of the schools of social work, applied anthropology becoming a kind of
tool for social workers? In a way, what and where is the difference between "applied
anthropology" and "community work" even if Van Willigen sees a difference of field between
action anthropology and impact assessment ?
C. ANTHROPOLOGY APPLIED TO SOCIAL WORK
Anthropology applied to social work contains three different approaches :
- evaluation anthropology : the field of impact assessment coming before, during or after a
project. A good example is the study made by Molly E.Dufort about the cultural framework
before to induce a social health programme concerning young handicapped indians of the Tohono
O'odham tribe (1992). She underlines the importance of the the patterns of living.
Evaluation anthropology applied to social development programmes appears mainly as a first step
aiming to avoid countereffects. It is a research, a feasibility study producing some marks usefull
to the good process of a social development action. It could be also the way to study the results, to
compare the objectives and the results, to study the coming of unforeseen effects (serendipity) and
to see the possibilities to extrapolate the same action to another field or area.
- operative anthropology : to give an help to the decision-making process.
An example of operative anthropology is the research made by Evelyn W.Pinkerton starting from
the civil and legal rights of Indians tribes in the State of Washington and the translation of those
rights in day-to-day social measures with an accent on flora and faune protection(1992:330).
Operative anthropology may be used to help decision makers by producing recommandations
following a field study.
- action anthropology : to be fully involved in the action process. An example is the project
launched by Inge Bolin in Chichubamba and Chillihuani in Peru. She helped people to research
some funds to foster the role of one school and to stablish a community health centre(1992).
The New look applied anthropology is the common denominator of various projects and actions.
In those cases the so-called (or not called) "applied anthropologist" does not play the first role : he
or she is more a kind of adviser, organizer or development agent . The main role is played (or
must be played) by the people.
As written by Cynthia A.Cone, applied anthropology is first of all a human science putting the
stress on a democaric approach of the real world. The "applied anthropologist" is mainly a
facilitator and a translator of the reality.
An example of such understanding of applied anthropology is the research made by De The and
Hubert (1988) on the patterns of living and cancers. They have used a linkage between medical
anthropology and nutritional anthropology to produce some behaviours maps integrating culture
and patterns of living. They pin the point on prevention and the interest to work in partnership
with mutual insurance companies, trade-unions and social workers.
D. ANTHROPOLOGY APPLIED AND SOCIATRY
Anthropology applied to social work is the result of two additional approaches or methods :
sociatry and socialogy (Anciaux, 1994 : 49-79).
The sociatric approach has to create a better organization of society and a better resources
management. The technics used in that framework open a door on an educationnal and practical
way to change society in the following ways :
- politic action : to help decision makers in political and social policies choices;
- assessment : to evaluate the results of a project;
- needs assessment : to collect data before the launching of a specific project;
- impact assessment : to study the action expected and unexpected effects;
- planning : to establish a planning agenda before an action;
- training : to train social workers, volunteers and / or people to administrate their own project...
E. ANTHROPOLOGY APPLIED AND SOCIALOGY
The approach through socialogy opens a door on two main question marks before to present some
turning points in that field :
- it could possible to see "socialogy" as the theoretical approach of social work trying to establish
a specific field of epistemology outside of the sociology of social work. In a way, it is the dream
of an internal epistemology to liberate social work from the weight of sociology and psychology.
In that sense, is that possible to see "social work" as a science and not only a practice ?
- what is the linkage between the practical view (sociatry) and the theoretical view (socialogy) ?
Are they the two dimensions of one single concept ? Are they involved in an inductive or
deductive way to see anthropology applied to social work ?.
The following trends may qualify the "socialogy" or theoretical approach of anthropology applied
to social work (systemic approach) :
- the study of social gaps, lack of organization is the basis of any action;
- the main goal of anthropology applied to social work is to bring information to the people;
- the role of the appplied anthropologist (or social worker) is a way to create a new item in one
society : the applied anthropologist may be the missing piece, the intruder, the trigger, the judge,
the friend, the watchdog...this role has to be understood and explained to the people.
- the main goal of anthropology applied to social work is the final product : human relations.
Applied anthropology has to built or rebuilt social contacts, networks, partnership, and so on...
- the non direct goal of anthropology applied to social work is to create a snowball effect : to
create the conditions to the coming of foreseen or even unforeseen effect. This image could be
characteristic of the applied anthropologist or social worker with different possible roles : the
applied anthropologist could be the rainmaker, the dream maker, the role player, the producer, the
go-between...in a certain way, the black duck in a society of white swans...
Now the global loop is accomplished : applied anthropology is not the "black duck" of human
sciences. In reallity, the applied anthropologist is the black duck of the society. The black duck in
the tribe of the white swans. The same as far as the social worker is concerned. The social worker
is the "black duck" between the social sciences and humanities perfomers and personalities;
In a sense, it could be true to see applied anthropologists or social workers (sometimes the same
person) as being at the periphery of the centre, different from the others, a kind of trouble shooter,
a kind of archeologist of the human mistakes and failures, a strange guy working in the alchemy
of human relations, spending hours and hours to speak to people, to live with people, to love
people...
One could say in a very sixties way to speak...not "I'm black and I am proud", not "I am a black
duck and I am proud", but well "I am an applied anthropologist and I am proud".
CONCLUSION
I would like to conclude with a remark made by Carla Guerron-Montero in an article of Practicing
Anthropology concerning the development of the small community of San Lucas in Ecuador . She
wrote : "Although applied anthropology is not a magical solution and certainly not free of
contradictions, I am a firm believer in the positive effects it has produced"(1998:33).
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