Practicing Anthropologists

Practicing anthropologists do exciting work to understand and help people around the world. We also turn up in places you might not expect to find us, including the fields of agriculture, computer science, law enforcement forensics, and more.

Our profession is dynamic and constantly evolving into more opportunities for professional anthropologists. The links, at left, contain many examples of anthropology in action, and interesting information for the public, the press and educators. You can also locate a local organization dedicated to anthropology and share and view upcoming events related to our field.

The Profession of Anthropology

Anthropology is the study of humans. Anthropologists seek answers to several fundamental questions. How did our kind evolve? What shapes our lives as creative and social animals? And, what can be done to improve how we live? These simple questions raise thousands of more detailed questions about the dynamic relationships between the world we live in, our own biology, our social relationships, and the ways we communicate.

The subject is so complex that U.S. anthropologists divide the work among four sub-fields: biological anthropology, archaeology, sociocultural anthropology, and linguistics. The discipline is inherently multidisciplinary in nature. Anthropologists borrow from and contribute to virtually all of the other professions, disciplines, arts, and sciences. They collaborate and exchange enough information amongst themselves to keep anthropology dynamic, vibrant, and restless.

Biological anthropologists tend to study environmental, biological, and social processes that shape us as a species. They integrate research from primatology, anatomy, osteology, genetics, molecular biology, evolutionary and population biology, ecology, demography, nutrition, medicine, pathology, and forensics.

Sociocultural anthropologists focus on our communities, social behaviors, and belief systems. Often investigate businesses, social networks, migration, gender, sexuality, economics, medicine, architecture, families, civil institutions, governments, policies, law, educational systems, ideologies, knowledge systems, and artistic expression.

Linguists concentrate on how we communicate. They concentrate on human anatomy, cognition, language formation, language development, social relationships, expression, symbolism, and meaning.

Archaeologists specialize in the ways we interact physically with our environment and cultural materials. Geology, surveying, materials science, demography, osteology, human biology, ecology, social organization,

Anthropologists apply their work by working in tandem with community leaders, non-profit institutions, companies, and governments to create, implement, and evaluate programs, products, services, policies, laws, and organizations.

Areas of Practice

Practicing anthropologists work in many industries and areas, including: