Thursday, March 10, 2011

Should I Pursue Anthropology?: Only if You Can Deal with the Elephant Under the Rug and the Skeletons in the Closet - Stacie Gilmore

The enthusiasm with which the American Anthropological Association touts the value of anthropology is unfortunate. I got my B.A. in anthropology in 2008, have worked non-profit community jobs ever since, and am now pursuing K-12 teaching. What drove me to the field of cultural anthropology was its down-to-earth focus on everyday life and the life of a community, and I don’t think I’m alone (see, for example, “The Scientific Curmudgeon”). More specifically, I wanted to get actively involved and hoped that applied anthropology was the key. Now I realize that anthropology, in its current form, is not the answer, for a variety of reasons.

Anthropology, via the AAA, markets itself as one of the few fields that gives you critical “global information and thinking skills” (link), but lots of fields have the same or better global (and domestic) applicability, from engineering to healthcare, education, journalism, etc. By comparison, cultural anthropology, in its general form, offers few skills aside from "participant observation" and "ethnography,” and those are extremely limited in value.

In all my time working since college, not once has anyone asked me to write a document or report resembling anthropological writing, or undertake an action similar to anthropological fieldwork. Many would consider its theories to be convoluted gobbledygook.

This reality indicates to me that the specific forms of writing and research that anthropology trains you for are not pressing local needs in the communities where I have lived: West Virginia and the Marshall Islands, to be specific. Technological skills, educator skills, project management and networking skills, general writing skills, creative imagination, art and music ability -- these are the kinds of talents that HAVE been requested of me and frequently put to use. Maybe some of them originate from anthropology in a roundabout way, but it's hard to say for certain since few of these fit closely with any academic discipline.

The only time in which cultural/historical writing was ever mentioned to me was as a return-favor. A friend said: "Now Stacie, if you ever want to write a book on this area, you let us know and we'd be happy to help you out." The point is, she didn't NEED or request that I write anything. She understands that this assistance from her might benefit ME, and could be a favor, in return for assistance I'd been giving to the community center. That aspect of anthropological writing is not stressed NEARLY enough in the discipline: that community members are providing services to OUR benefit by letting us write and publish about their communities, and not always vice-versa, and how to repay them is a serious question.

In addition, unlike as I'd hoped going into the field, if you don’t do your research in the very same place where you live, academic anthropology also tends to alienate you from the community that you are working to research, assist, and become a part of. According to Bureau of Labor Statistics, as of 2009, there were only 30 professional anthropologists and archaeologists employed in the entire state of West Virginia, where I live, likely not all of them academic (view all statistics). These charts don’t even speak to global inequalities in distribution.

So, “Real” cultural anthropologists are few and far between, that is, the ones being paid to study people and places through participant observation and write about them in ethnographies. They hold privileged teaching and/or research positions that are beyond ordinary attainment and nonexistent in most communities. Furthermore, academic anthropologists are responsible to an academic community for awards and prestige, and to the university system for promotions, paycheck, and livelihood. They secure information from communities for reports but usually do not live in that community year-round. They visit for a short period of fieldwork and return to a distant college or university as their "real" home, leaving them remarkably "outside" the community, as much as they try to be a part of it.

Finally, Max Forte and others have made a good case for ongoing colonialism in anthropology at a variety of levels. I won’t take the time to go into that here, but please browse the site.

In my opinion, a better answer to the dilemma of wanting a down-to-earth focus and being able to make a tangible impact is to get closely and intimately involved in the life of the community where you live. Grow food. Teach children. Develop genuine skills that you can offer up. Invent something useful. Help improve your town. Most of all, talk to people, and listen --- not to take the “data” back to a dark library basement to “study” for a scientific report, but to genuinely learn about what’s going on in your community and around the world and make informed personal decisions based on that knowledge.

You can still learn from people, write, study, and read, if that’s what you enjoy. Just don’t be fooled into thinking that you have to go into anthropology (specifically academic anthropology) to continue to pursue those interests, or that people outside academia will automatically appreciate your anthropological skills once you have them, or that writing and reading anthropological reports will magically bring you closer to people. Many times it’s quite the opposite.

My point is simply that the desires and hopes that people have going into anthropology aren’t always met by the state of the discipline itself, and the disconnect can cause a great deal of frustration. I personally have found more of what I hoped for in anthropology through direct community service and work in K-12 schools. Whether anthropology can change to meet such demands, or refashion itself to meet those of us working outside of "traditional anthropology” halfway, I don’t know, but it would be promising to see more existing anthropologists working towards such a goal.



Stacie Gilmore
Foodie, Volunteer Addict, Do-It-Yourselfer, and Wannabe Farmer/Teacher
Southern West Virginia


7 comments:

Paul Wren said...

After a few years of interacting with cultural anthropologists, I've come to classify them in one of two groups: Academics and activists.

Academic anthropologists embrace the term "anthropology" literally: the study of humans. They observe, hypothesize, study and report, just as any other scientist would. they want to make a difference by adding to human knowledge about humanity.

Activist anthropologists want more-- they want to study humans, but also make judgments on the plight of those they study, and then work actively to help them out of it. They want to make a difference by improving the lives of humans in a more direct fashion.

I sense that the satisfaction you get from your community-based work indicates you fall into the latter group, and certainly understand why you feel traditional anthropology doesn't measure up to your hopes.

I am optimistic about the rapidly growing arm of Applied Anthropology, since it's aim is to apply anthropological methods and viewpoints to making a difference in the lives of people right now.

I don't need to go into it at length here, but several universities in the U.S. and elsewhere have programs in Applied Anthro, and are worth a look for those hoping to use anthropology to make a difference. Here are but a few:

University of South Florida
Cal State Long Beach
University of North Texas (including a completely online Masters)

Jeremy Trombley said...

"In my opinion, a better answer to the dilemma of wanting a down-to-earth focus and being able to make a tangible impact is to get closely and intimately involved in the life of the community where you live. Grow food. Teach children. Develop genuine skills that you can offer up. Invent something useful. Help improve your town. Most of all, talk to people, and listen..."

Excellent, Stacie! And let me say, as a student at one of those schools that offers "applied anthropology" (my degree is going to be a MAA - Master of Applied Anthropology), that it's not necessarily any different from anywhere else. We are bogged down in the same academic limitations as anywhere else, and "applied anthropology" in my opinion is too narrowly defined - not as making a difference, but as working for an agency outside of academia.

I think we all find our roads towards making the world a better place. I'm sticking with anthropology (or, at least, anthropological work) because I think I can use it to make a difference. You've gone a different route, and that's perfect - I admire you for it.

The above quote applies, I think, no matter what you do, and I've seen anthropologists who follow that path (my advisers Jane Gibson, Don Stull, and Michael Paolisso, for example) and I've seen those who don't (I'll keep their names to myself). Hopefully I'll be able, someday, to find my way to making an effective difference in my community - I think my training in anthropology, largely because of those advisers I mentioned, will help me to do that.

Thanks.
JMT

Anonymous said...

no.

Conor said...

This short essay put into words what I have been trying (but failing) to explain to all the people that continue to ask what I am doing with my applied anthropology degree. Thanks Stacie!

On another note, I was lucky enough to be the "resident anthropologist" at a non-profit in Cambodia last year, which allowed me to do field research, write project proposals, and conduct program reviews. Not quite the same as anthro writing, but fun nonetheless.

And lastly (sorry to babble on), I think one of the benefits of anthropology is its openness. It seems that the knowledge gained through anthropological research and writing can be applied to multiple avenues outside of academia. Lets hope so at least!

Running Sneaks said...

I'd have to agree with the last part of Conor's comment regarding anthropology's "applicability" outside of academia. Coming from a very "down-to-earth," practicality-focused community, I was faced with a lot of skepticism about my choice of anthropology as my B.A. degree. I'm often asked, "Soooo, anthropology. What are you going to do with that?" And while anthropology isn't necessarily noticed and valued outside the discipline, I'm convinced that it's a way of thinking that enables people to be more effective in anything they choose to do. After all, anthropology is the study of humans/humanity, and humans are pretty common around here and involved in every other "area of study."

Todd S. said...

I don't need to go into it at length here, but several universities in the U.S. and elsewhere have programs in Applied Anthro, and are worth a look for those hoping to use anthropology to make a difference. Here are but a few:

University of South Florida


Wait, what? That's my school and I was totally unaware of this. Guess I need to get prepared to do some rounds with the advisers.

Anonymous said...

While I'm all for wanting to help people, who are we to say there is anything wrong with the way people live in other cultures or areas across the globe? What makes the way our society lives better than people in secluded tribes still progressing as a race? These "activist anthropologists" are more like missionaries, that's why Ms. Gilmore has only been able to find nonprofit jobs. The majority of people don't want to pay an outsider to come into their community and judge their lifestyle and critique their supposed wrongdoing. That's not anthropology. Despite the big heart I have for the people suffering in the world, it's not necessarily my place to come in and tell them what they need to change.