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C
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a
p
t
e
r
Applied Anthropology
This chapter discusses the role of applied
anthropology. It discusses the ways in
which it is related to and separate from
academic anthropology. It also discusses in
depth several fields of applied anthropology
such as urban anthropology, medical
anthropology, and forensic anthropology.
24
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Applied Anthropology: Definition

Applied
anthropology
refers to the
application of
anthropologic
al data,
perspectives,
theory, and
methods to
identify,
assess, and
solve social
problems.
McGraw-Hill
In Los Angeles, youths of many national backgrounds, like these
Cambodians, have formed gangs. Anthropologists understand that
these kin-modeled associations help to reduce the stress of urban life,
and applied anthropologists working in these communities can use
this information to develop programs for the community.
© 2002
by The
McGraw-Hill
Companies, Inc. Camp
All rights
reserved.
Photo
Credit:
Alon Reininger/Woodin
& Associates
Applied Anthropology: Views

Anthropologists have held three views about applying anthropology:
 The ivory tower view contends that anthropologists should avoid
practical matters and focus on research, publication, and teaching.
 The schizoid view holds that anthropologists should carry out, but
not make or criticize, policy.
 The advocacy view argues that since anthropologists are experts on
human problems and social change, they should make policy
affecting people.




Identify locally perceived needs for change.
Work with those people to design culturally appropriate and socially
sensitive change.
Protect local people from harmful development schemes.
Kottak favors advocacy.
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Applied Anthropology

Professional anthropologists work for a wide variety of
employers: tribal and ethnic associations, governments,
nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), etc.


During World War II, anthropologists worked for the US
government to study Japanese and German culture “at a
distance.”
Malinowski advocated working with the British empire to
study indigenous land tenure to determine how much land
should be left to the natives and how much the empire could
seize.
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Academic and Applied Anthropology
After World War II, the baby boom fueled the growth of the
American educational system and anthropology along with
it starting the era of academic anthropology.
 Applied anthropology began to grow in the 1970s as
anthropologists found jobs with international organizations,
governments, businesses, hospitals, and schools.

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Theory and Practice
Like most other disciplines, anthropology boomed
immediately after the second World War, and again in the
sixties as the strengths of the discipline fit with prevailing
social interests, which began a turn toward practical
applications.
 Anthropology’s ethnographic method, holism, and systemic
perspective make it uniquely valuable in application to
social problems.
 Applied anthropologists are more likely to focus on a local,
grass roots perspective in approaching a problem than to
consult with officials and experts.

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The Subdisciplines
Cultural Resource Management refers to excavations done
to gather as much data as possible from sites threatened by
construction or other projects.
 Cultural anthropologists frequently consult with other
professionals, to facilitate the extension of health, economic,
and other services to various populations.

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Anthropology and Education
In particular, anthropology has helped facilitate the
accommodation of cultural differences in classroom settings.
 Examples include: English as a second language taught to
Spanish-speaking students; different, culturally based
reactions to various pedagogical techniques, the application
of linguistic relativism in the classroom to BEV.

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Urban Anthropology
Human populations are becoming increasingly urban.
 Urban versus Rural:



Robert Redfield was an early student of the differences
between the rural and urban contexts.
Various instances of urban social forms are given as examples,
African urban (Kampala, Uganda) social networks in
particular.
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Medical Anthropology

Medical anthropology is both academic (theoretical) and
applied (practical).




Medical anthropology is the study of disease and illness in
their sociocultural context.
Disease is a scientifically defined ailment.
Illness is an ailment as experienced and perceived by the
sufferer.
The spread of certain diseases, like malaria and
schistosomiasis, have been associated with population
growth and economic development.
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Medical Anthropology
Schistosomiasis is among the fastest spreading
parasitic infections. It is propagated by snails
that live in ponds, lakes, and waterways, such as
this irrigation system in Luxor, Egypt.
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rights reserved.
Photo
Credit: Erich
Lessing/
Magnum
Medical Anthropology

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).
Emotionalistic disease theories assume emotional experiences
cause illness (e.g., susto among Latino populations).
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Medical Anthropology

Health-care Systems



All societies have health-care systems.
Health-care systems consist of beliefs, customs, specialists,
and techniques aimed at ensuring health and preventing,
diagnosing, and treating illness.
Health-care Specialists


All cultures have health-care specialists (e.g., curers, shaman,
doctors)
Health-care specialists emerge through a culturally defined
process of selection and training.
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Non-Western Medicine

Lessons from Non-Western Medicine:



Non-western systems of medicine are often more successful at
treating mental illness than Western medicine.
Non-western systems of medicine often explain mental illness
by causes are easier to identify and combat.
Non-western systems of medicine diagnose and treat the
mentally ill in cohesive groups with full support of their kin.
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Western Medicine

Despite its advances, Western medicine is not without its
problems.





Overprescription of drugs and tranquilizers
Unnecessary surgery
Impersonality and inequality of the patient-physician
relationship
Overuse of antibiotics
Biomedicine surpasses non-Western medicine in many
ways.



Thousands of effective drugs
Preventive health care
Surgery
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Medical Development


Like economic
development,
medical
development must
fit into local
systems of heath
care.
Medical
anthropologists can
serve as cultural
interpreters
between local
systems and
Western medicine.
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Clinics like this one bring Western medicine to
the Masai of Kenya.
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Companies,
Inc. All rights
reserved.
Photo Credit:
YoramKahana/
Peter
Arnold
Anthropology and Business
Through studying institutions such as businesses,
anthropologists have identified the process of
microenculturation, through which people in finite systems
learn their specific roles.
 More recently, cross-cultural study of business practices has
become more important (e.g., the study of Japanese business
techniques).

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Careers in Anthropology
Because of its breadth, a degree in anthropology may
provide a flexible basis for many different careers (with
appropriate planning).
 Other fields, such as business, have begun to recognize the
worth of such anthropological concepts as microcultures.
 Anthropologists work professionally as consultants to
indigenous groups at risk from external systems.
 Other employers of anthropologists include: USAID,
USDA, the World Bank, private voluntary organizations,
etc.

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The Continuance of Diversity
Anthropology has a crucial role to play in promoting a more
humanistic vision of social change, one that respects the
value of cultural diversity.
 The existence of anthropology is itself a tribute to the
continuing need to understand social and cultural similarities
and differences.

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