What is it like to be an anthropologist?

Question

do you get to travel alot and study places?

Answer 1

I am a physical anthropologist.  I can identify human (and non-human) remains.  I have identified a partial skeleton uncovered on a beach (dolphin) and worked with many sets of human remains.  It is delicate and reverant work.  At times it can be very rewarding.  I have worked with cultural anthropologists in many different fields.  From social workers who help people get state assistance, to analysts who study trends in the population, they all sought to study and help humanity in general.  Many of my anthropology professors remain to be my mentors and heroes, they have made a huge impression in my life.  I work as a lawyer now, but my anthropological training still impacts my everyday life.  Anthropology teaches you to view the world through a whole new set of eyes.

Answer 2

It depends on your subcategory of anthropology, what job you have, and what phase of that job you are in at the time.  A cultural anthropologist employed by an aide group or development project may spend a year in the field and then a few years mostly at home writing papers and policy recommendations.  A professor will spend considerably more time at home, teaching and writing, than in the field.  A biological/forensic anthropologist will spend most of their working hours in a laboratory attached to a morgue or a museum.  An anthropologist that works as a museum curator will spend time in local research with limited trips to acquire artifacts elsewhere, more often from other museums than from the field.  They are more likely to use secondary/library research than to go and gather field data first hand.  There are also plenty of anthropology majors that don't work in anthropology at all.