Anthropology paper survey...?

Question

as part of my paper for my anthropology final i have to take a survey and have people give their opinions on the followng questions:

How do you feel about using anthropology for business and marketing purposes?

How do you think academic anthropologists contribute to solving real-world problems?

anyone who could take the time to answer on or both of these it would be greatly appreciated :)

Answer 1

I'm an applied anthro grad student, so I don't know how valuable my answers will be, but...

I don't have a problem with using anthropology for business and marketing.  A little ethnography can help a product reach people who could benefit the most.  Besides, anything that opens the job market for anthropologists can't be all bad.

I think some academic anthropologists are working to salve real-world problems.  The only ones that aren't are those that cling to the Boasian dogma that anthropology has to be detached and as "scientific" as possible.  A large number of anthropologists are willing to try to fix a problem when they notice it.  However, there are some that are more interested in the objectivity of the data.

Hope that helps...