Anthro Notes

National Museum of Natural History Bulletin for Teachers

Vol. 16 No. 3

Fall 1994

ANTHROPOLOGY AS A CAREER

Anthropologists at Work: Careers Making a Difference. Produced by Dawn Bodo and Elizabeth Briody. VHS Color Video, 40 minutes. American Anthropological Association and EXPOSE: Communication Network. Cost: $25 (students and NAPA members), $30 (professionals, non-NAPA members), $35 (organizations, institutions). Make checks payable to American Anthropological Association, and send to: American Anthropological Association, Careers Video, 4350 North Fairfax Drive, Suite 640, Arlington, VA 22203-1621.

The National Association for the Practice of Anthropology and the American Anthropological Association have developed a video, Anthropologists at Work: Careers Making a Difference, which will help future anthropologists decide how to approach the field as a career. Since nearly one-third of new PhD anthropologists and the majority of new MA graduates now find employment outside of academia, this is a timely production.

Anthropologists at Work shows how anthropologists in all four subfields (ethnology, archaeology, physical anthropology, and linguistics) apply their skills to a wide variety of jobs, from the traditional academic research position to industrial anthropology, with a broad spectrum of careers between. The popular image of an anthropologist is usually an “Indiana Jones” character involved in adventurous and glamorous archaeological investigations, or a diary-keeper, studying small, nearly-extinct tribes in remote areas of the world. As NAPA notes in the press release, however, this video “captures anthropologists at home and abroad in diverse settings: from government and human services, to archaeological excavations and forensic work, to manufacturing industries; conducting research; implementing policy; teaching and providing expertise in the areas of health, education, development, and the corporate world.”

The video focuses on four major points.

1) Skills developed as anthropologists, such as interviewing, statistical analysis, knowledge of foreign languages, writing, and problem solving, can be applied to almost any career. 2) There are professional opportunities in anthropology for women and minorities which may be unparalleled in any other field. 3) Anthropologists take a holistic approach to their careers, incorporating methods and theories from all four subfields. 4) It is extremely rewarding to apply one's anthropological background to improving other people's lives.

Case Studies

Anthropologists at Work presents about a dozen vignettes, interviewing anthropologists in all four subfields about their background, their jobs, and their impact on the world around them. For example, Cindy Mahrer, who is with the Center for Applied Linguistics in Washington, DC, discusses the effectiveness of a two-way bilingual education program. In this program, immigrant students are taught English, but the English-speaking students are also taught the immigrants’ language. Neither group of students feels disadvantaged, and each group tends to help the other. All of the students benefit not only by learning a second language, but also by gaining insights into another culture.

Miguel Vasquez, an agricultural anthropologist from Northern Arizona University, works with the Hopi to restore abandoned terrace gardens. Traditionally, Hopis worked cooperatively on these gardens, providing a focus for socializing as well as producing food. As mass-produced products have become available, the Hopis have neglected the gardens, and the community focus has suffered. By researching the methods used by earlier generations and involving younger members of the tribe, Vasquez has been able to help restore a part of the Hopi culture which might otherwise have been lost.

General Motors employs Elizabeth Briody as an industrial anthropologist. Briody analyzes the work culture at GM, finding where employee groups have problems and helping management to solve them. Michael Blakey, at Howard University, works closely with the community to help protect historical materials found in the African Burial Ground site in New York City, and to educate the public about the historical significance of the site. A Smithsonian Institution Curator, Douglas Ubelaker, uses his training as a skeletal biologist to work with law enforcement agencies to help identify human skeletal remains. By accumulating data from many cases, Ubelaker shows how an individual's lifestyle can affect his skeleton and teeth; this information, in turn, can be useful in future cases. Each of these vignettes, as well as the others not mentioned in this review, provides students and their advisors with specific information about how to apply the skills, methods, and theories of traditional anthropology to developing and implementing problem solving strategies in a wide variety of careers.

Marilyn London

Department of Anthropology

National Museum of Natural History