How can ethnography be used to solve problems in the world today?

Question

How can ethnography be used to solve problems in the world today?

Answer 1

Through ethnographic research, anthropologists gain greater insight into other cultures (or their own culture).  You gain a better understanding of why people do things that may seem strange, illogical, or even troubling to you. This knowledge can lead to greater cross-cultural understanding, awareness, and communication, thus helping to solve global problems.

Answer 2

I agree with Catgirl, but the answer is incomplete.

Pure anthropological understanding (as any other) would still lack a mechanism that can translate such knowledge into popular understanding, modify current understanding or, better still, generate practical answers to social problems.

We could imagine a way that Anthropological knowledge of cultural events can somehow filter into popular understanding of them and "straighten up" prejudices or false conceptions. But practical answers must be found in applied uses of anthropology, namely in research that considers modifying present structures or situations that hamper peoples ability to gain a better quality of life as defined by themselves.