Essentially Anthropology is the study of people or more properly, of humankind. It is different from any other discipline studying man e.g. Psychology, economics, sociology, history, biology, medicine and so on. Anthropology seeks to integrate the separate narrow views of humanity into a single framework, a process that begins with our biological and evolutionary roots, explores the development of culture through the historic and prehistoric period, probes the uniquely human ability to develop culture through communication, and examines the diversity of recent and present day cultures that inhabit the globe.
From this conception of the holistic and comparative study of humankind emerge the four fields of anthropology : biological or Physical anthropology, archaeology, social, cultural anthropology and anthropological linguistics.
All these subfields of anthropology have their basic and applied aspects. Thus anthropology is a discipline concerned primarily with basic research. It asks big questions concerning the origins of humankind, the roots of human nature, the development of civilization and the functions of our major social institutions, such as marriage and religion. At the same time anthropologists have put the methods and skills developed in basic research to use in solving human problems and fulfilling the needs of the society. Anthropologists, for example, have worked with medical examiners in the identification of skeletal remains and with NASA to redesign their equipment to accommodate a wider range of users. Anthropologists have helped communities in preserving their cultural heritage, as well as helping business and government agencies to understand the social impact of progress or development projects. Anthropologists are now working in a broad range of settings.
They are employed at all levels of government, in the private sector, and in a variety of non research capacities such as administration, evaluation and for policy analysis. In this way they are now taking up careers not only to provide training in the application of anthropology but also there are increasing opportunities where anthropological training and skills are useful.
The study of anthropology helps us to view the world in a completely different way. It helps us to appreciate the great diversity of human culture and the long history of our species. It gives us a broad perspective on humanity and helps us to understand other people’s belief and customs. Thus it can help us to be better citizens in an increasingly global society.
This fascinating aspect of anthropology is obvious to many educated people but there is also a practical side of the discipline, complimentary and less well known. This is the practical, applied side of our discipline i.e. anthropological ideas and research methods in action being used to understand and solve practical problems. To understand this we need to go in the detail of the career profiles of anthropologists working outside the college and university setting that shows how they are applying anthropology. It is believed that the fundamental lessons of anthropology can be applied to many concerns and all areas of human endeavour. We hope that the course content conveys the students our excitement about the anthropological adventure as we expect that they will find themselves both enjoyable and thought provoking.
The profession needs to provide the vision of the future anthropological work to be done in the public domain as well as within the academy. We need to tell the students “what they can do with a degree in anthropology? For those students who opt other subject areas e.g. Business, engineering, or psychology we need to address the question. How can anthropological insights or research methods help us understand and help human problems”
If we can provide such a service, we increase the likelihood that students will find creative solutions to the professional problems that await them and we brighten the future for our anthropology students by underscoring the usefulness of an anthropological perspective on the practical problem of today’s world.
We believe that the applications of anthropology cut across and infuse all the discipline’s subfields.
We need to primarily demonstrate the way our discipline is used outside the academic arena. Anthropology is not only an interesting field of study also is relevant to real world. We need to emphasize on the fascinating aspect of anthropology by focusing on the fundamental questions of humanity addressed by anthropologists as well as the practical applications of the field.
We need to inform the students as well as the public that Anthropology contributes to forensics, ergonomics, program evaluation, social impact studies, organizational analysis, market research and nutrition research, etc. In other words we need to emphasize how anthropology can be put to work in different fields.
