Managing Our Anthropological Legacy

During that period between the end of WWII and today's anthropology so much data has been published. One can see this in the evolution of the AAA, and its Anthrosource. The number of articles available electronically is more than one can read in a life time and since 1980, the number journals/newsletters listed there has expanded tremendously.  

The published record is only a small sample of the record accumulated by field anthropologists. There is so much more data out there that has gone unpublished just sitting in personal files. Also, the technology for recording and storing the data has changed some much since 1945. The question of accessibility becomes a real practical concern.

 I am facing this now, especially since the mid-1970s when my tool was a TRS80 with 64 kilobytes of memory and today my tool is a Dell laptop with a 20 gigabytes hard drive, Windows 10 and ports for tetrabytes of more storage available. I have information stored in multiple formats and for multiple platforms. Most no longer exist. I feel, this is creating a negative inertia on the development of Anthropology by contributing to the fragmentation (or some might say "specialization") within the "holistic study of human kind."

 Aside from academic research, there is the whole domain of applied work that we will need to archive. There is an idea, among some in the profession, that those trained as anthropologists but not academically employed, are NOT REAL ANTHROPOLOGIST. This is a real lose to the profession. The applied domain is where we actually field test theory and method, especially when framed as an experimental anthropological design.

Where do the applied anthropologists archive their professional work and how is it fed back into the collective anthropological experience? The contribution that the applied anthropologists have to offer to society is, as valuable, if not more so, than the theoretical based academic research. The applied anthropologist tests what works and what does not work in a given sociocultural context. While academic anthropologists often make policy statements about the issue of the day at their annual meetings, they are rarely held to account for their positions, much less listened to beyond a very narrow circle of their colleagues .

The applied anthropologist is dealing with policy alternatives daily. Applied anthropologists are testing theory and practice through their work in the policy arenas of planning, programming, and evaluation activity. Further, they are generally members of a cross discipline, cross-cultural team. How do we train students and prepare professionals for policy work?

Just as auto-ethnographic material, such as Malinowski’s diary, have proven especially valuable for understanding the context of the participant/observer role; such insights into one’s role on such teams on one level, and the role that anthropologists play in the policy process on another, could be valuable for training future students if fed back into their training.

Then there is the middle ground. These are the anthropologically trained individuals, who hold an academic teaching position outside a tradition anthropology department. Instead, they hold positions in a professional training program such as medicine, business, education, etc. Whether a full time, or as adjunct, this individual is expected to teach a subject designed by the department or profession to introduce a social science or even an anthropological perspective to their students. I have experienced this type of role. I have recorded notes on how to integrate and apply anthropological knowledge to and within the specifics of the professional topic being taught. But these are notes that sit in my files.

Today where we live in a multi-cultural and international environment, this is the challenge for both the discipline and the professionals it services. I found, for example, a Masters Degree in International Management extremely useful for status reasons in the business school setting while the anthropological training and experience at the PhD level gave academic status in the University setting. Besides, the institutional creditability however, is the reality of today’s business world, which is multi-cultural and international.

Another aspect is the type of academic employment the student might expect to find. Tenure, which is based in part on research and publishing , is an unrealistic goal for many students today. More and more, graduates are being hired as teachers, that is adjunct teachers who are paid on a class by class basis and at a much lower rate than tenured faculty. This often precludes the time for the types of research and writing that does not generate revenue but would be required for tenure.

On the other hand, like the adjunct teacher, the research faculty is grant funded and held to researching and writing on the topics specific to the project. This means that as long as the project is being funded, the research anthropologist has a job. But, he/she must also be researching or searching for new opportunities to pick up when the last project ends. That is, marketing one’s skills and expertise competes with creating the record of those very skills and expertise.

On a personal level I found that one might leverage an aspect of the current “topic of the day” to apply for the “next topic of the day”, e.g. "alcoholism treatment", to "alcohol use among the elderly", to  "research management" to "consulting to non-profits" etc.. This keeps you employed and broadens your expertise and skills. But, rarely do you get a chance to share these experiences beyond the immediate clients. Instead, the record remains in a file draw, or thrown out to make room for the next project.

The technological changes just make it more of an issue. For example, I have progressed from pencil and paper to IBM Selectric, the IBM data punish cards, to TRSDOS data on a single sided 256 K 51/2” floppy to a 15 Gigabit thumb drive with Windows 10 on my Dell Laptop and everything in between. Archiving and recovering these materials, I feel, are the greatest problem for our discipline and profession. Otherwise, it is a lot of wasted time, money and effort spent, for what many see is as a dilettante's discipline.

Maybe its better to be an English major!