National Association for the Practice of Anthropology
In 2011, when I first began my career as a researcher in the context of business and design, I knew almost nothing about the field I had decided to work in. I lacked a basic understanding of how products are designed, how businesses work, and how to work with people in this world. What I…
Anthropologists are trained to find solutions to problems by approaching them holistically—from all sides—and through critical thinking, grounded in our theories and methods. Few disciplines prepare their practitioners so well to tackle the problems of the modern world by incorporating our broad knowledge of human evolution, history, biology, and behavior across the world’s cultures. Unfortunately, and to our discipline’s detriment, not enough people or businesses are informed of what anthropologists do and how we can help.
This edition of AC is a bit fluffier than most–both in content & volume. But it’s summer and that’s what we care about, right? The sodastream commercial above features an anthropologist. Speaking of videos, happy national hijab day (July 9). We’ve got an analysis of the hijab’s changing role in fashion, identity & consumerism. And…
If you haven’t yet, you should check out the new season of the Invisibila podcast. The first 2 episodes feature Renato Rosaldo and his discovery of a new emotion. One anthropologist photographs the bathtub marys of Sommerville, Massachusetts. Business anthropologist Martha Bird shares her perspective on what anthropology brings to designing new technologies. Do you…
Ever heard of neurodiversity? Anthropologists are studying how workplace culture, norms and beliefs are changing to be more inclusive of autistic employees. Anthropologist T. N. Pandit shares a heartfelt reflection of regret by for his role in encouraging remote hunter-gatherer tribes of the Andaman Islands contact with the outside world. For those of you…
Linguistic anthropologist Jena Barchas-Lichtenstein refutes the demonization of “filler words” such as “like” or “um”. She outlines how these discourse markers matter for social interaction and that attempts to banish such words are really a bias against women and younger generations who are assumed to use them more frequenlty. Anthropology professor turned politician? While an…
The National Association For The Practice of Anthropology is a section of The American Anthropological Association (AAA) – contact GC