Should anthropologists try to help the people and communities with whom they work?

Question

Should anthropologists try to help the people and communities with whom they work?

Answer 1

They should leave it as it was. Just because a community is indigent or underdeveloped doesn't mean it needs rescuing.

Answer 2

It depends on what you mean by "help."  If you mean get involved in the community and help with chores, etc then yes, absolutely.  However if you mean help by trying to "improve" their lives and make them more like "developed" western society, then no.  To do so is making the assumption that western society is superior, which it isn't, just different.

Answer 3

No, it's destructive to their culture. This can be very hard because many anthropologists will form close bonds with the people they study, and may even become part of the community. It's a difficult situation especially when it comes to situations where providing medicine could save lives. But providing them with advanced technologies or innovative subsistence methods can enslave a people to western culture. This has happened so many times, even when the help seems harmless.

Answer 4

When Bruce Knauft lived among the Gebusi in Papua New Guinea, he developed close relationships with the people; at one point, a young girl was kicked out of her home and ostracized because of what was viewed as "inappropriate behavior". She had left her husband, but he had been beating her. Knauft felt sorry for the girl and tried to plead her case, but it just embarrassed everyone, since an older man will never take up the interests of a young girl that he does not have sexual designs on. So, in the end, he ended up making everything worse when he shouldn't have been interfering in the first place.

Of course, on the other hand, a different culture is not just some organism being studied under a microscope; it is a group of human beings. So, if there is real cause for alarm, like severe illness or starvation, I would personally not hesitate to get a doctor in or help increase food supplies.