1
Using Anthropology
David W. McCurdy
In Spradley, J. & McCurdy, D. (2006).
Conformity and Conflict
(12e,
pp. 422
-
435
)
. San Francisco: Pearson.
Some disciplines, such as economics, have an obvious relationship to the nonacademic world.
Economic theory, although generated as
part of basic research may often prove useful for understanding the “real” economy.
Anthropology, on the other hand, does not
seem so
applicable.
In this article, David McCurdy discusses some of the professional applications of anthropology and argues that there is a bas
ic
anthropological perspective that can help anyone cope with the everyday world.
He uses the case of a compan
y manager to illustrate this
point, asserting that ethnographic “qualitative” research is an important tool for use in the nonacademic world.
In 1990, a student, whom I had not seen for fifteen years, stopped
by my office.
He had
returned for his college r
eunion and thought it
would be interesting to catch up on news about is (and my) major
department, anthropology.
The conversation, however, soon
shifted from college events to his own life.
Following graduation
and a stint in the Peace Corps, he noted, he
had begun to study for
his license as a ship’s engineer.
He had attended the Maritime
Academy, and worked for years on freighters.
He was finally
granted his license, he continues, and currently held the engineer’s
position on a container ship that made re
gular trips between
Seattle and Alaska.
He soon would be promoted to chief engineer
and be at the top of his profession.
As he talked, he made an observation about anthropology that may
seem surprising.
His background in the discipline, he said, had
helped
him significantly in his work.
He found it useful as he went
about his daily tasks, maintaining his ship’s complex engines and
machinery, his relationships with the crew, and his contacts with
land
-
based management.
And he is not an unusual case.
Over the
years, several
anthropology graduates have made the same observation.
One, for
example, is a community organizer who feels that the cross
-
cultural
perspective he learned in anthropology helps him mediate disputes
and facilitate decision
-
making in a multie
thnic neighborhood.
Another, who works as an advertising account executive, claims
that anthropology helps her discover what products mean to
customers.
This, in turn, permits her to design more effective ad
campaigns.
A third says she finds anthropology a
n invaluable tool
as she arranges interviews and writes copy.
She is a producer for a
metropolitan television news program.
I have heard the same
opinion expressed by many others, including the executive editor of
a magazine for home weavers, the founder o
f a fencing school, a
housewife, a physician, several lawyers, the kitchen manager for a
catering firm, and a high school teacher.
The idea that anthropology can be useful is also supported b
y the
experience of many new PhD
s
.
A recent survey has shown, for
the
first time, that more new doctorates in research, and the list of
nonacademic work settings reveled by the survey is remarkably
broad.
There is a biological anthropologist, for example, who
conducts research on nutrition for a company that manufacture
s
infant formula.
A cultural anthropologist works for a major car
manufacturer, researching such questions as how employees
adapt to working overseas, and how they relate to conditions on
domestic production lines.
Others formulate government policy,
plan
patient care in hospitals, design overseas development
projects, run famine relief programs, consult on tropical forest
management, and advise on product development, advertising
campaigns, and marketing strategy for corporations.
This new
-
found applicati
on of cultural anthropology comes as a
surprise to many Americans.
Unlike political science, for example,
which has a name that logically connects it with practical political
and legal professions, there is nothing in the term anthropology
that tells most
Americans how it might be useful.
The research subject of anthropology also makes it more difficult to
comprehend.
Political scientists investigate political processes,
structures, and motivations.
Economists look at the production and
exchange of goods an
d services.
Psychologists study differences
and similarities among individuals.
The research of cultural
anthropologists, on the other hand, is more difficult to characterize.
Instead of a focus on particular human institutions, such as politics,
law, and
economics, anthropologists are interested in cross
-
cultural
differences and similarities among the world’s many groups.
This interest produces a broad view of human behavior that gives
anthropology its special cross
-
cultural flavor.
It also produces a
uniq
ue research strategy, called
ethnography
, that tends to be
qualitative rather than quantitative.
Whereas other social sciences
moved toward
quantitative methods
of research designed to test
theory by using survey questionnaires and structured, repetitive
o
bservations, most anthropologists conduct
qualitative research
designed to elicit the cultural knowledge of the people they seek to
understand.
To do this, anthropologists often live and work with
their subjects, called
informants
within the discipline.
Th
e result is a
highly detailed ethnographic description of the categories and rules
people consult when they behave, and the meanings that things
and actions have for them.
It is this ethnographic approach, or cultural perspective, that I think
makes anthro
pology useful in such a broad range of everyday
settings.
I particularly find important the special analysis.
To
illustrate these assertions, let us take a single case in detail, that of
a manager working for a large corporation who consciously used
the et
hnographic approach to solve a persistent company problem.
The Problem
The manager, whom we will name Susan Stanton, works for a
large multinational corporation called UTC (not the company’s real
name), UTC is divided into a number of parts, including div
ision,
subdivision, departments, and other units designed to facilitate its
highly varied business enterprises.
The company is well diversified,
