Friday, October 30, 2009

What can you do with Anthropology?

If were to go into the field of anthropology I would want to work in the business and corporate aspect of anthropology. I never really thought about how anthropology relates to business, but it is actually really important in the field. With our increase in technology and communication with other countries our economies seem somewhat dependent on each other. In order for our business relationships to go smoothly we need to understand their culture and what is acceptable and inacceptable for them. This can also be important in marketing for the business. If you are marketing to another country you would need to understand their culture so you can better appeal to them and make sure that you don’t offend them. I also thought medical anthropology was interesting. When the woman was talking about HIV and other medical epidemics that occur I didn’t think anthropology had much to do with it. Then I realized that you have to understand someone’s culture to prevent these epidemics. You have to understand their everyday life and this could help you understand how these epidemics are occurring. They look at the differences and solutions to health problems.
Not only do I like the business and corporate aspect of anthropology, the one that interested me the most was Sociocultural Anthropology. This is when anthropologists work in the government and community to find and solve problems. I think this would be the most rewarding of the jobs for me, because I love to look at social problems. Anthropology plays a huge role in finding social problems because they usually stem from cultural differences and culture clashes. You can also analyze a culture and find where their problems come from, especially historically. The movie was very eye opening to the many things you can do with anthropology. It surprised me but I was able to understand how all of the jobs connect because of all of things we have looked at in our readings and class discussions.

1 comment:

  1. ok -- but why keep calling things "a culture" or "their culture"? This has two problems -- it bounds it in a static way, and it also suggests that externalities don't influence this "culture," such as new technology, goods or policy changes. So, with business relationships -- sure, maybe you don't want to put your shoes on the table in the Middle East because "they" think its offensive, but there are also interesting questions about how a technology or product might be received or used based on norms and values, and how the meanings of different consumption might vary, or why something might be taken up in one context but not another.

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