An Essay on Careers

by Author Gary Ferraro with Video Highlights

ANTHROPOLOGY AND JOBS

With the costs of college education continuing to skyrocket, more and more parents are asking their college-aged children some very practical questions. For example, parents want to know why their children are majoring in anthropology. Behind such a question is the more pragmatic question: What kind of job can you get with a B.A. in anthropology?

It is important to bear in mind that a B.A. in cultural anthropology-as in most other undergraduate fields of study-is a liberal arts degree, not some type of professional certification. In other words, an undergraduate degree in anthropology does not prepare a person to become a professional research anthropologist any more than an undergraduate degree in political science equips a person to achieve high political office. The B.A. in anthropology does provide excellent background for graduate study in anthropology at the Ph.D. level, which is the normal route to becoming a professional anthropologist.

For those not interested in pursuing a career as an anthropologist, the B.A. in anthropology provides valuable skills and insights that can be relevant for a wide variety of other professions. Because cultural anthropology involves the study of human behavior in whatever form it may take, a B.A. in anthropology can be useful for any job that requires an understanding of human cultural behavior. However, such a general statement is of little use to the recent college graduate who is pounding the pavement in search of employment. The term anthropologist or cross-cultural expert is not a standard job Classification in the employment section of a newspaper's classified ads. In recent decades, however, a number of jobs in both government and industry have developed that focus on certain cross-cultural issues and involve working with people from different cultural and subcultural backgrounds. These jobs might include program director, consultant, planner, market analyst, housing administrator, cross-cultural trainer, social worker, survey researcher, or coordinator of refugee services. Many of the case studies appearing in the Applied Perspective sections of this text illustrate how anthropological skills have been applied to a number of different professional areas. For example, case studies showed how anthropological skills and insights have been used to help architects design appropriate housing for subcultural groups, develop a highly successful reforestation program in Haiti, shed light on the public health aspects of the AIDS epidemic, and provide courts with culturally relevant information for the resolution of legal cases, to mention but a few applications.

As mentioned in Chapter 3, the prevalence of applied anthropology within the discipline has increased in recent decades, most notably during the 1970s and 1980s. Because of a shrinking academic job market, coupled with federal legislation requiring environmental impact studies and historical preservation, more professionally trained anthropologists are employed in nonacademic positions than in colleges and universities. As more and more Ph.D.-level anthropologists are making their way into nonacademic jobs, employment opportunities for those with less than Ph.D. training in anthropology are also increasing. Today people with training in cultural anthropology are putting their observational and analytical skiffs to work in a variety of ways in both the public (government) and private (business) sectors of the economy.

Opportunities for employment with the U.S. federal government are wide ranging. In the area of international development, an increasing number of jobs are opening up for people who understand cross-cultural behavior. Such organizations as the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA)-organizations that administer foreign aid-hire people trained in anthropology to provide the background needed to implement certain programs of planned change successfully, such as programs for family planning, agricultural development, educational reform, and disease prevention. As many development agencies throughout the world have learned the hard way, the most well-intentioned programs of planned change can have disastrous results unless something is known about the cultures of the target populations. Before spending (in some cases) minions of dollars on development programs, such organizations as CIDA and USAID want to have as much relevant information as possible about the local cultures.

Anthropological skills are valuable for various types of government work abroad, but at least as many cultural anthropologists are working for various branches of government (federal, state, and municipal) at home. Because North America, contrary to popular myth, is not a perfect melting pot, a good deal of ethnic diversity can be found there. As long as substantial cultural differences exist, there will be a need for anthropological skills and insights to help bureaucrats work effectively with all cultural subgroups.

Because anthropology deals with understanding cultural differences, and because governments are in the business of providing services for all people, there should be a considerable overlap of interests between cultural anthropologists and government bureaucrats. To illustrate, people with anthropological training have worked in government positions at home in the following areas: aging, criminal justice, cultural resource management, disaster assistance, education, family planning, human and civil rights, information systems, medical care, museums, nutrition, program evaluation, public housing, public relations and communications, refugee settlement, research grant writing, social impact analysis, substance abuse, urban planning, and welfare policy. Although this list is hardly definitive, it does give a general idea of the scope of jobs related to training in anthropology.

Today a growing number of students of anthropology are finding their way into new and exciting areas of employment, particularly in the private sector of the economy. The following is a sample of recent employment experiences in the world of business by those with training in anthropology:  Steven Barnett was hired by an advertising agency in charge of creating an ad campaign for the Sylvester Stallone movie Rambo III. Barnett conducted ethnographic research on how a cross section of U.S. theatergoers viewed Rambo. Barnetts findings that Rambo was viewed almost as a comic book hero resulted in an ad campaign that played down ". . . the cold war politics and played up Rambo as a larger-than-life cultural icon.' (Heller 1988:A-24)

After conducting an ethnographic study on two-way pagers in rural China (where there is a shortage of telephones), Motorola decided to start marketing its pagers for vigorously for the rural China market. According to Jean Canavan, an anthropologist for Motorola, "If we want to develop technologies that really fit into the way people live their day-to-day lives, then we have to understand how people really live." (Hafner, 1999.)

Lucy Suchman, working as a researcher for Xerox, makes anthropological observations of airport workers to learn how they keep track of people, airplanes, luggage, and air freight. Xerox hopes to use these findings to help improve its handling of documents, design more user-friendly equipment, and improve its instruction manuals. (Deutsch 1991:C-11)

Allison Cohen, described as a marketing ethnographer, conducts firsthand research into people's kitchen cabinets, refrigerators, and medicine cabinets to determine their buying patterns. Rather than using mailed questionnaires, as has been the case in more traditional marketing research, people like Cohen are hired by marketing firms to observe U.S. consumer behavior in its natural context. Advertising agencies are willing to hire these "Margaret Meads of marketing~'because they feel they will be able to develop more effective ad campaigns if they first know something about what is being bought and why. (Miller, Shenitz, and Rosado 1990:59-60)

Lorna McDougall, an employee at Arthur Andersees Center for Professional Education, uses anthropological data-gathering techniques to study why some people learn more effectively through the lecture method and others learn better through more interactive methods. The findings from this research will enable the instructors at the center to use the most effective teaching techniques in their corporate training. (Deutsch 1991:C- 11)

Some North American companies are interested in hiring those trained in cultural anthropology to collect relevant information on their culturally diverse workforces as a way of minimizing conflicts between the corporate culture and the cultures of the workers. Moreover, companies that are manufacturing, marketing, or negotiating abroad need help from anthropologically trained people when working in culturally unfamiliar waters. As a way of addressing these needs, an increasing number of cultural anthropologists are becoming cross-cultural trainers for organizations that send people abroad or have multicultural workforces at home. By conducting a search for "cross cultural training" on the Internet, you will find numerous companies that provide culture specific training. Many of these training firms either employ anthropologists as cross cultural experts or are using comparative cultural data that have been collected by anthropologists.

The preceding discussion has attempted to provide some idea as to how those with training in anthropology can fit into the world of work. As Van Willigen reminds us, "the (job) market is not very much aware of anthropologists as such" (1993:223). In the final analysis, each student is responsible for carving out a spot in the job market for her or himself. In other words, because no jobs in the nonacademic world are exclusively for cultural anthropologists, it is important for the graduate in cultural anthropology to prepare for the job search by gaining an understanding of the organization offering the job as well as a clear appreciation of what he or she brings to the job situation. Anthropology graduates are better equipped in certain areas than are those graduating with any other liberal arts degree. First, anthropology graduates are well acquainted with cross-cultural differences and similarities, an area of expertise of particular importance in a multicultural society such as our own. This involves the ability to "size up" unfamiliar social and professional situations, appreciate the wide range of cultural behavior in the world, and learn how to behave toward people from other cultures with sensitivity, flexibility, and understanding. Second, training in anthropology instills such qualities as interviewing skills, experience with survey research, observational acuity, and a holistic perspective. Third, anthropology graduates should have other skills and assets that can be useful to potential employers, such as experience with statistical methods, computer skills, foreign language fluency, and communication skills. Once students have a clear understanding of their skills, they are in a good position to tailor their resumes to a particular job opening.

For an excellent visual introduction to the topic of anthropology and jobs, ask your professor to show the video Anthropologists at Work: Careers Making a Difference, produced by the National Association of Practicing Anthropologists (NAPA) and distributed by these American Anthropological Association (AAA).