What is Applied Anthropology - Research Paper Example

Essay: Applied Anthropology Absract: Applied anthropologists use anthropological methods and tools of research to solve real world problems and issues.  It involves applying the study of human culture, behavior, language, and biology and many other sub disciplines. Applied anthropologists usually work in non-academic settings such as international development agencies, private firms, health organizations, medical schools, public, charitable associations and so on. This essay seeks to demonstrate that applied anthropology can affect global societies both positively and negatively. The following questions constitute the backbone of this essay: What is applied anthropology? What are the major theoretical foundations of this scholarship? Also, what are the limitations of this discipline? And to what extent can it benefit humanity? Essay: Applied anthropology refers to the use as well as the implementation of anthropological data, theories, perspectives and methods to identify and provide solutions for social problems. It is the field wherein professionals and academics utilize the insights of anthropological research to promote practical social and cultural projects across cultures around the world. By working in groups, applied anthropologists endeavor to enhance, manage and evaluate some programs whose sole aim is to positively influence human social conditions. The field of applied anthropology is devoted to putting into use the knowledge anthropology has generated and will continue to generate along the years. While there are no previous definitions which dominate the published literature on the definitional issue, a well known disseminated statement was written by George Foster for his textbook, Applied Anthropology (1969). He defined the field in the following way: “Applied anthropology is the phrase commonly used by anthropologists to describe their professional activities in programs that have as primary goals changes in human behavior believed to ameliorate contemporary social, economic, and technological problems, rather than the development of social and cultural theory.”1 Traditionally, the field required four sub-disciplines like biological, linguistic, cultural as well as archaeological anthropology. Therefore, it was believed that the practical implementation of any of the pre-mentioned sub-disciplines might be considered as “applied anthropology.” In fact, some practical problems impel and compel anthropologists to invoke all sub-disciplines. To set a clear example, “A Native American community development program may involve archaeological research to determine legitimacy of water rights claims, ethnography to assess the current and historical cultural characteristics of the community, linguistics to restore language competence among inhabitants, and biological or medical anthropology to determine the causality of dietary deficiency diseases, et al.” 2 It is worthwhile mentioning that the initial naming of applied anthropology goes back to the colonial regime of Great Britain, where anthropologists first aimed at convincing administrators to sponsor their fieldwork in the absence of other means of support. According to Adam Kuper: “From its very early days, British anthropology liked to present itself as a science which could be useful in colonial administration. The reasons are obvious. The colonial governments and interests were the best prospects of financial support, particularly in the decades before the discipline was granted recognition by the universities.”3 It is important to note that applied anthropologists invariably work for nonacademic services such as nongovernmental organizations, development agencies, national and international associations, educational and other social centers. Among the main research tools of the applied anthropologist, we can state ethnography and participant observation. In addition to this, the applied anthropologist draws on textual analysis, survey research and other empirical methods either to market products or to inform policy. In this respect, needless to mention that most applied anthropologists are practitioners who dwell on cross-cultural knowledge and anthropological methods for research and action. They are found in all sectors of life like business, health, education, and human domains. They are often researchers and, meanwhile, they work as administrators, program directors, and even business owners.  They are invited to provide the anthropological perspective-a general outlook of the lives of individuals and communities based on a tradition of cross-cultural scholarship and action. For this alone, they may work in teams with other professionals or as individuals. Strikingly, applied anthropologists build bridges between people and different cultural worlds.  They may write treatises, make videos, or give detailed explanations of policy or research for a lay audience. Special of them is that they have much esteem for cultural difference and wield great awareness of the specificities of every culture.  This tangible and palpable reality enable them somehow to devise plans, urgent programs and methods, by dint of which they can improve human well-being all over the world. Being conceived as the area of anthropology that concerns active involvement by anthropologists in the lives of their informants, applied anthropology, as a branch of learning, covers a vast range of subjects. Noteworthy is that from the 1880s until the 1960s, most anthropologists regarded themselves as empirical scientists. They thought that their role was to elicit from their informants as much knowledge as possible and to report with much objectivity and impartiality what people would say. However, by the 1960s, a new minority of scholars emerged in the field and started questioning their colleagues’ claims to objectivity. “Participant-observation puts the anthropologist in the position of the natural members of the group. Hypotheses about acceptable behavior are validated by successive approximations carried out as an observing participant. The reliability of a respondent, the truth of his statements, and the validity of hypotheses are tested by triangulation, wherein converging lines of inquiry focus on the point at issue. However, even though the testimony may be based on hearsay, the data upon which the expert relies does not need to be admissible and is not made admissible simply because her knowledge is based on hearsay.4 These scholars strongly advocated that it is the anthropologist’s duty to get engaged in the lives of their informants, and to try their best and utmost to pave the way for social justice, equity and equality. Remarkably, applied anthropology is an arm of double facets because it can affect societies in both positive and negative ways. While it is perceived as the most efficient and effective way through which people can understand the “Other”, an individual or group of individuals that are different from the observer, and consequently offer a room for conducting comparisons, differences, and information to gain a holistic perspective on a totally different way of human life, applied anthropology is criticized for the misrepresentation of this “Other”; the latter is always portrayed as being uneducated, uncivilized and inferior and need a sort of enlightenment that can be brought only by the Western white man for whom the applied anthropologist stands. Understanding the “Other” is necessary in developing the appropriate strategies and techniques for a successful interaction with him.  From this perspective, we can venture that applied anthropology is of great benefit to humanity so long as it looks at divergent, communities, social groups and finding out what is shared and common amongst them.  The development and ongoing evolution humanity is experiencing due to diverse changes and influences of other cultures and people necessitated the consecration of efforts to promote this interdisciplinary scholarship of applied anthropology.              Many years ago applied anthropology focuses on tribal studies and extinct or dying peoples and cultures throughout human history.  The huge data collected through in-depth and thorough human studies using anthropologic analysis allows the developing world to realize what the consequences might be. Applied anthropologists lead many investigations across cultures of today, including urbanized environments where many sub cultures thrive. By this, applied anthropology has evolved.  The study of the “Other” for learning about him is basic to applied anthropology, which reflects on the human motivation from external forces or objectives.  Generally speaking, this considered motives of enhancing, sustaining, and influencing human life in an attempt to evaluate the current world instead of the past.  In point of fact, anthropologists take a very vital stand and active role in their own complex culture when ushering into applied anthropology; the latter actively finds answers to hard questions, such as Philippe Bourgois, Claire Sterk, and Peggy Mclntosh’s work on drugs, prostitution, and racism.5 These anthropologists are but few examples of how applied anthropologists have penetrated into society’s underworld to reveal and unveil how the American dream is still attainable.  Therefore, in order to understand their complex cultures, applied anthropologists look at the subcultures to help them have a better grasp of the history of human global culture.  Among the limitations or the weaknesses of applied anthropology is how (in)visible the applied anthropologists become in their topic.  Anthropological data could be ruined by a sudden intervention of the applied anthropologist and a possible assimilation of the social scientist into the culture s/he is pondering upon and, as a bad consequence, distorting the information being collected.  Another limitation of applied anthropology is that the applied anthropologist is neither investigating nor researching information for long periods of time and thus building up trust.  On the contrary, s/he is trying to prove how the “Other” threatens their existence and the great horror he can instill into them someday.  World War II Japanese concentration camps are another example of how the client and the group’s needs conflicted, and how the applied anthropologists’ research was used less scientifically and more for the government’s security demands.  This resulted in many Japanese Americans losing their homes, propriety, and dignity through applied anthropologist’s advice on how best to help the country protect themselves from Japanese spies during the war.  The governments and American society’s stigma against the enemy caused a lack of cultural understanding to be applied that might have help all parties involved and prevent the Japanese concentration camps in America.  Such acts reflected poorly on the field of applied anthropology and the credibility of those reports6.             Other criticisms that are directed towards applied anthropology is that applied anthropology does not involve any true theories of its own.  This reality of course did harm the development of this academic field, as it turned its back to academic circles and institutions. Even worse, sometimes applied anthropologists strive to avoid taking any jobs that can lead them to criticize a boss or a given company and to defend study groups against negative consequences. In the light of what has been said, we can say that irrespective of the couple of criticisms, weaknesses from which applied anthropology suffer, efforts ought to be done to make the best of it. None can deny that the world is becoming a very small village due to globalization and modernization, yet such phenomena have brought worlds’ diverse cultures close to eachother. So, it is up to applied anthropology to help people understand eachother well, bridge the gap between cultures and, most importantly, corroborate peace and dialogue around the globe.             Read More