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The 1999 edition of Newsweek?s ?Career and Graduate School? guide lists ?anthropologists? as a hot career. A look the courses in the field.
The 1999 edition of Newsweek’s “Career and Graduate School” guide lists “anthropologists” as a career that’s “up,” and one of the “hot careers” of the future. The November 2001 issue of Cincinnati Magazine makes a similar claim and says, “Employers have been snatching up anthropologists as if they were nuggets at the Gold Rush.” According to the magazine, among the companies who employ anthropologists are Sapient, Intel, Kodak, Whirlpool, AT&T, General Motors, and Hallmark, to name just a few.
Where do anthropologists find employment?
The fact is that anthropologists use their knowledge of culture and research in a variety of professions and organisations. Private companies can use the principles of applied anthropology in urban planning; health organisations can use the subject to study the effect of customs and behaviour on health; advertising companies on market research; international agencies on training employees, particularly those working in human resources departments etc. International organisations in fact, often employ anthropologists for projects in various countries as impact assessors, researchers and cultural brokers. In the World Bank for instance, anthropologists study the geographic, socio-economic and cultural variations before a programme is framed. They will work out projects that would be relevant and cost-effective on these parameters.
Meanwhile, government agencies also employ anthropologists as policy researchers, research analysts, evaluators, planners and policymakers, while non-profit organisations hire them as advocates, administrators, evaluators and researchers. Since, cross-cultural training is used in a broad range of activities —- in international business, trade, education, science and medicine —- anthropologists are currently in demand in most fields, affected by globalisation.
What does it cover?
At its core, anthropology is the study of human diversity. Thus anthropologists study human beings from multiple perspectives. It is an extraordinarily rich and integrative discipline that enables students to understand people and prepares them to live and work effectively in a culturally diverse and increasingly wired world. An anthropologist’s main interest areas lie in the study of cross-cultural differences in social institutions, cultural beliefs and various communication styles.
There are four main fields in anthropology and these are social-cultural anthropology, physical/biological anthropology, archaeology and linguistic anthropology. While socio-cultural anthropology deals with the study of present-day cultures around the world, linguistic anthropology deals with the study of communication practices and archeology is mainly concerned with ancient cultures from a study of their artefacts. Last but not least, physical anthropology deals with our biological aspects i.e. a study of the human skeletal and other physical remains; it includes research on human evolution, molecular and bio-chemical research as well as forensic studies.
Which are the institutes that teach the subject?
Unfortunately, there are few very institutes in India (government or private) that offer programmes in anthropology. Recently however, Amity University has begun offering a post-graduate level programme in the subject. This programme, MA/MSc. in anthropology offers specialisations in socio-cultural anthropology and physical anthropology. A two-year professional course, it’s completed in four semesters and uses problem solving, rather than a theoretical framework of study.
