CHAPTER 12 APPLYING ANTHROPOLOGY CHAPTER OBJECTIVES 1 Understand the relationship of academic and applied anthropology the kinds of work in which applied anthropologists from all four subfields may engage and the aspects of anthropology which make it uniquely valuable in application to social problems a Applied Anthropology is the use of anthropological data perspectives theory and methods to identify assess and solve contemporary problems involving human behavior and social and cultural forces conditions and contexts b Post WWII applied anthropologists worked on Pacific islands to promote local level cooperation with American policies in various trust territories c Applied anthropologists have a range of employers including government agencies development organizations NGOs tribal ethnic and interest groups businesses social services and educational agencies A systematic perspective recognizes that changes have multiple consequences some unintended 2 Consider the historical approaches to applying anthropological knowledge which Kottak describes and the ethical issues raised through these Know the three different roles or actions Kottak identifies for applied anthropologists today 3 Know what development anthropology is and what development anthropologists do Understand the factors that may contribute to the success or failure of development projects b a Development anthropology is the branch of applied anthropology that focuses on social issues in and the cultural dimension of economic development They carry out development policies planned by others and plan and guide policies Increased equity would reduce poverty and distribute wealth more evenly Reform minded governments would need to approve this goal but aren t likely to because it would threaten their vested interests Irrigation schemes are more likely to widen wealth disparities to have a negative equity impact Uneven distribution of resources becomes the basis for distortion after the project The social impact of new technology is usually more severe negatively contributing to quality of life and to equity when inputs are channeled to or through the rich 4 Identify how anthropological research has contributed to the field of education and to particular school environments a Anthropologists view children as cultural creatures whose enculturation and attitudes toward b education belong to a context that includes family and peers In one study they found that certain practices were preventing Hispanics from being adequately educated There weren t bilingual teachers working with Spanish speaking students to teach them English instead you had only English speaking teachers trying to teach only Spanish speaking students The Spanish speaking students were falling behind in all subjects because their schools were grouping them with other students who had low reading scores and behavior problems when their problem was not because of the way they learned but because of the way they were being taught The Spanish students could have at least kept up in other subjects if their school hadn t improperly grouped them 5 Know what academic and applied urban anthropologists study is and the contemporary world context of urban growth in which they conduct their research Consider the ways anthropologists have investigated social relations in urban and rural settings a Academic anthropologists study the way students are being treated in a classroom and attempt to fix any problems in the learning environment that may be apparent see example from q 4 b Urban anthropologists study why people migrate to different cities and what happens as a result to populations increasing in certain areas what it does to the culture environment economy etc It is the cross cultural and ethnographic studies of global urbanization and life in cities c One anthropologist Robert Redfield realized that a city is a social context that is very different from a tribal or peasant village and he contrasted rural and urban life He contrasted rural communities whose social relations are on a face to face basis with cities where impersonality characterizes many aspects of life He described differences in values and social relations in four sites that spanned a rural urban continuum In Mexico s Yucat n peninsula Redfield compared an isolated Maya speaking Indian community a rural peasant village a small provincial city and a large capital Several studies in Africa Little 1971 and Asia were influenced by Redfield s view that cities are centers through which cultural innovations spread to rural and tribal areas 6 Know the subject matter and scope of medical anthropology Identify the three different kinds of disease theories and consider how they differ Think about how academic and applied medical anthropologists study the relationship of biomedicine and other health care systems existing around the world as well as the work of health care specialists a Medical anthropology examine questions such as which diseases and health conditions affect particular populations and why and how illness is socially constructed diagnosed managed and treated in various societies Perceptions of good and bad health along with health threats and problems are culturally constructed Various ethnic groups and cultures recognize different illnesses symptoms and causes and have developed different health care systems treatments b Three steps for applied anthropologists to help improve the health disparity between indigenous people and other populations 1 Identify the most pressing health problems that indigenous communities face 2 gather information on solutions to those problems and 3 implement solutions in partnerships with the agencies and organizations that are in charge of public health programs for indigenous populations c The world system and colonialism worsened the health of indigenous peoples by spreading disease warfare servitude and other stressors Certain diseases and physical conditions such as obesity have spread with economic development and globalization d Three disease theories personalistic naturalistic and emotionalistic Personalistic blame illness on agents such as sorcerers witches ghosts or ancestral spirits Naturalistic explain illness in impersonal terms o Ex Western medicine aims to link illness to scientifically demonstrated agents that bear no personal malice toward their victims attributing illness to organisms accidents toxic materials or genes poor health or unbalanced