Real World Anthropology

http://www.anthro.ufl.edu/documents/about_anthropology.pdf

Real World Anthropology
• Anthropologists conduct academic and applied research as a means to understand individual
human lives within larger socio-political contexts and to ameliorate human problems. Although
traditionally archaeologists made their careers within academia, over half of new Anthropology
PhDs in the US are employed in non-academic settings (government, non-governmental
organizations, business firms). Anthropologists engage many different publics, including those in
the private sector.
• Anthropologists, both academic and applied, are engaging many contemporary issues that have
global, national, and community implications for policy-making and advocacy for individuals and
groups. The following few examples illustrate the interconnectedness of these issues and the
need for the holistic, interdisciplinary, macro-micro, and long-term perspectives of Anthropology
to successfully tackle them:
o Environmental Change: Ecological Sustainability, Global Warming, Water and Land
Resources, Biodiversity, Anthropogenic Landscapes
o Health and Nutrition: Infectious Disease (e.g., HIV/AIDs), Health Care Policy,
Resource Depletion and Famine, Bio-medicine, Alternative Medical Practices,
Impediments (age, gender, race, class) to Health Care Access
o Globalization: Global Economies, Sovereignty, Transnationalism, Development,