35 Development Anthropology

Naila Ansari

Table of Contents

Introduction

1. Definition of Development Anthropology
2. Emergence of Development Anthropology
3. Analysis of Diverse Socio-Cultural and Biological Contexts
4. Aims and Scope of Development Anthropology
5. Anthropological approaches to Culture for Proper Development every Human Society
6. Cultural Relativism
7. Anthropological Perspective
8. Development and Ideology
9. Implications of anthropologists for the Development of people’s lives
10. Applied context of Development Anthropology

Summary

Learning Objectives

• To able to define and classified of Development Anthropology
• To be know about Emergence of Development Anthropology
• To able to describe Aims and Scope of Development Anthropology
• To be able to derive Holistic Cultural context of Development Anthropology
• To improve descriptive studying of Visual Data produced by Cultures

Introduction

As the world becomes more complex it is increasing important to understand human behaviour and cultural diversity, especially as this relates to everyday life. An anthropological perspective on human Development defining anthropology as a holistic approach, which is both diachronic and synchronic; it includes a consideration of all aspects of people’s social, economic and cultural life including the social habits of the human population. It not only includes the ways in which people in any society live but also how it is affected on the local level by everything that is going on in the regional, national and international arenas. Thus an anthropological perspective on issues of human Development is cross-cultural, and includes an examination of the present political and economic theology of globalization, with a clearly articulated emphasis on the context-appropriate rebuilding or retention of local economies, with a view toward the protection of the environment, the preservation of cultural diversity, and the empowerment of local communities and their members.

There are so many things new about the study of man by man through the scientific approach on the origins, the behaviour and the physical, social, cultural Development of humans. Man has been observing and commenting about himself for a very long time; it is the study of humankind, past and present, in all its aspects especially human culture or human Development to understand the full sweep and complexity of cultures across all of human history, anthropology draws and builds upon knowledge from the social and biological sciences as well as the humanities and physical sciences.

1. Definition of Development Anthropology

Development Anthropology is a newly developed sub-branch of Anthropology. Development Anthropology wide open and considers various arguments about this sub-field, but also looks beyond immediate disciplinary concerns to enlarge the possibilities for a Development Anthropology that’s not only connected with the professional concerns of anthropologists, but also adequately presents anthropologically.

Development Anthropology can play a very important role in developing and awareness of those aspects of culture that condition the formation of the value judgments. Development anthropology refers to the application of anthropological perspectives to the multidisciplinary branch of Development studies. It takes international Development and international aid as primary objects. In this branch of anthropology, the term Development refers to the social action made by different agents (e.g. institution, businesses, states, or independent volunteers) who are trying to modify the economic, technical, political, or/and social life of a given place in the world, especially in impoverished, formerly colonized regions.

Development is a deceptive term because it has been used as a catch-all for many different viewpoints; the word ‘Development’ is used to refer to the classical notion of economic and social Development with a focus on human needs and human capital. It is often thus defined as the process of change whose goal is to increase the wealth of a society or a nation by raising incomes, increasing access to services, reducing unemployment, expanding human capital, and healthy life. Human Development is unique to each person. The Human Development offers an in-depth investigation of how individuals grow and change within their familial, cultural, and social contexts. Human Development is an interdisciplinary major that integrates knowledge from anthropology, biology, economics, education, history, medicine, psychology, and sociology; allows examining and exploring the impact of globalization, demographic and policy changes, racial identity, risk and resiliency, and the media. Human Development is a well-being concept within a field of international Development. It involves studies of the human condition with its core being the capability approach. The inequality adjusted Human Development Index is used as a way of measuring actual progress in human Development by the United Nations. It is an alternative approach to a single focus on economic growth, and focused more on social justice, as a way of understanding progress; concept of human Development was first laid out by Amartya Sen, a 1998 Nobel laureate.

2. Emergence of Development Anthropology

Even before the emergence of anthropology as an academic discipline in the 1971.

• In 1971, Glynn Cochrane proposed Development anthropology as a new field for practitioners interested in a career outside academia. Given the growing complexity of Development assistance, Cochrane suggested that graduates needed to prepare themselves to work in interdisciplinary settings.
• In 1974, Bob Berg of the United States Agency for International Development and Cochrane worked together, and, as a result, USAID introduced “social soundness analysis” as a project preparation requirement. This innovation led to the employment of more than seventy anthropologists. In addition to anthropology, the course covered Development economics, regional and national planning, and institution building.
• In the late 1970s, Thayer Scudder established an Institute for Development Anthropology at the State University of New York at Binghamton. This institute has played an influential role in the continuing expansion of this branch of the discipline.
• By the 1980s and 1990s, Development anthropology began to be more widely used in the private sector. Corporate social responsibility and issues ranging from resettlement and human rights to micro-enterprise are now routinely addressed by systematic social assessment as an integral part of investment appraisal.

3. Analysis of Diverse Socio-Cultural and Biological Contexts

Historically, anthropologists in the have been trained in one of four areas: sociocultural anthropology, biological/physical anthropology, archaeology, and linguistics. Because anthropology is such a broad discipline, no single anthropologist can master the entire field. Topics of concern to anthropologists include such areas as health, work, ecology and environment, education, agriculture and Development, and social change.

• To examine social patterns and practices across cultures, with a special interest in how people live in particular places and how they organize, govern, and create meaning. A hallmark of anthropology is its concern with similarities and differences, both within and among societies, and its attention to race, sexuality, class, gender, and nationality. Research in anthropology is distinguished by its emphasis on participant observation, which involves placing oneself in the research context for extended periods of time to gain a first-hand sense of how local knowledge is put to work in grappling with practical problems of everyday life and with basic philosophical problems of knowledge, truth, power, and justice.
• To understand how humans adapt to diverse environments, how biological and cultural processes work together to shape growth, Development and behaviour, and what causes disease and early death. In addition, they are interested in human biological origins, evolution and variation. They give primary attention to investigating questions having to do with evolutionary theory, our place in nature, adaptation and human biological variation. To understand these processes, biological anthropologists study other primates (primatology), the fossil record (paleoanthropologist), prehistoric people (bio archaeology), and the biology e.g., health, cognition, hormones, growth and Development) and genetics of living populations.
• To understand past peoples and cultures, from the deepest prehistory to the recent past, through the analysis of material remains, ranging from artifacts and evidence of past environments to architecture and landscapes; material evidence, such as pottery, stone tools, animal bone, and remains of structures, is examined within the context of theoretical paradigms, to address such topics as the formation of social groupings, ideologies, subsistence patterns, and interaction with the environment. Like other areas of anthropology, archaeology is a comparative discipline; it assumes basic human continuities over time and place, but also recognizes that every society is the product of its own particular history and that within every society there are commonalities as well as variation.
• To explore language practices that define patterns of communication, formulate categories of social identity and group membership, organize large-scale cultural beliefs and ideologies, and, in conjunction with other forms of meaning making, equip people with common cultural representations of their natural and social worlds. Linguistic anthropology shares with anthropology in general a concern to understand power, inequality, and social change, particularly as these are constructed and represented through language and discourse.

Anthropologists are highly specialized in research interests, yet remain generalists in observations of the human condition and advocate for a public anthropology that is committed to bringing knowledge to broad audiences. Anthropologists collaborate closely with people whose cultural patterns and processes we seek to understand or whose living conditions require amelioration. Collaboration helps bridge social distances and gives greater voice to the people whose cultures and behaviours anthropologists study, enabling them to represent themselves in their own words. An engaged anthropology is committed to supporting social change efforts that arise from the interaction between community goals and anthropological research. Because the study of people, past and present, requires respect for the diversity of individuals, cultures, societies, and knowledge systems, anthropologists are expected to adhere to a strong code of professional ethics.

4. Aims and Scope of Development Anthropology

Development Anthropology, by focusing on its own efforts to make and understand culture, is able to establish many principles and build theories about human culture in general.

The aims of Development Anthropology can be briefly enumerated as follows:

• (i) To record data for future analysis,
• (ii) To improve our economic condition and increasing the equality of basic need,
• (iii)To provide information for related cultural studies and to verify theories,

The promise of Development Anthropology is that it might provide an alternative way of perceiving culture perception constructed through distinct way:

• (i) Definition, scope and uses of Development Anthropology, views of prominent anthropologists regarding the discipline.
• (ii) History and Development of Development Anthropology.
• (iii)Development Anthropology as one of the Documentation methods in anthropology.

Anthropologists always emphasis on the fieldwork through the use of ‘participant observation while studying other cultures; this participation between the researcher and the subjects being studied should be reciprocal.

The main focus of anthropology is medical anthropology, psychological anthropology, economic anthropology, political anthropology, business anthropology band so forth. Overall objectives of Anthropology for human Development that require certain basic needs be met. These include:

• Studying first hand and reporting about the ways of living of particular human groups.
• Comparing diverse cultures in the search for general principles that might explain human ways of living.
• Trying to understand how various dimensions of human life—economics, family life, religion, art, communication, and so forth—relate to one another in particular cultures and in cultures generally.
• Understanding the causes and consequences of cultural change. Finally, enhancing public understanding and appreciation of cultural differences and multicultural diversity.
• Enough water to meet a range of functions, including drinking, bathing, irrigation, cleaning dwellings, utensils, etc.
• a nutritious diet based on human needs (vitamins, proteins, carbohydrates, and micro nutrients) in forms that are culturally appropriate;
• adequate clothing appropriate to the climate and the social milieu;
• shelter commensurate with cultural expectations, the physical environment, and the political conditions;
• meaningful work, which provides a role and status in society;
• equal access to ‘”modern’” as well as ‘”traditional’” health care and the possibility of choice;
• Through analyzing fossils, comparing DNA sequences and other methods, the outlines of human evolution are becoming clear.

5. Anthropological approaches to Culture for Proper Development every Human Society

In context of proper human Development a central concern of anthropologists is the application of knowledge to the solution of human problems. In short, anthropologists of one kind or another are liable to investigate almost everything about human beings: our evolution, our genes, our emotions, our behaviours, how people organize their living, our language, our religion, our behaviours and so forth. A good way to emphasize anthropology’s broad scope is to say anthropologists are interested in all human beings – whether living or dead, Asian or African or European—and that anthropologists are interested in many different aspects of humans, including their technologies, family lives, political systems, religions and languages. No place or time is too remote to escape the notice of anthropologists. No dimension of humankind from skin colour to dress customs falls outside the anthropologist’s interest. While most biological anthropologists work in universities or museums as teachers, and researchers, many people trained in biological anthropology apply their knowledge of human anatomy to solve problems. For instance, specialists in forensic anthropology work with law enforcement and other agencies where they help to identify human remains and identify the circumstances of death.

Cultural Relativism—the idea that people’s values and customs must be understood in terms of the culture of which they are apart.

1. Bias and personal judgment need to cease for they may distort a correct view of that culture
2. Stress Understanding not Judgment
   1. Moral Relativism—the idea that because no universal standard of behaviour exists people should not judge between good and evil. This is different from cultural relativism.
   2. All cultures make absolute sense to their own members
   3. Anthropologists must understand members’ logic, even if they do approve of the cultural practice.
   4. Cultural relativism makes us see that there are many ways to solve similar problems.
3. No Superior/Inferior culture
4. No primitive culture

Anthropological Perspectives:

1. Emic—provides an insider’s view of perspective (native or member of culture point of view).
   1. Attempts thinking and acting as a member of culture
   2. Helps develop our ability to look at our own culture from the outsider or etic point of view.
2. Etic—provides an outsider perspective (an analysis that is not part of the native’s cultural awareness.
   1. It helps outsiders to obtain sense of what it means to be a member of that culture
   2. Since it lies outside a native’s awareness, research can be tested and may be meaningful for the natives and the basis for constructive change
   3. It aims to generate scientific theory.
3. Emic and Etic are complimentary perspectives.

6. Development and Ideology

If human Development is taken to refer to all of the people on this planet, the critical linkages between ideology and public policy just mentioned cannot be ignored. This includes people’s ways of supporting themselves and their families, ways of living, which set the patterns for the very core of human existence, including the integrity of their community’s way of life. The ideologies and beliefs of those making policy and those carrying it out have had profound effects on human life. The ideology of Development specialists, most Anthropologists, and people in planning is different. The ideology being consists of a set of closely interrelated beliefs. The most important belief, which informs all the others, is that ‘”Development’” is the most important imperative for countries or regions to eliminate poverty. It is supported by a belief that limitless growth is a real possibility for all, and an equation of growth. Another key belief is that the critical imperative for any country is to maintain international competitiveness, and that the central role of governments should not be to regulate markets but to facilitate, at any cost to their people, the relentless expansion of their economies by removing all barriers to trade and investment. This version of globalization is said to be the only way in which poor countries, or poor segments within countries, can ever improve.

7. Implications of anthropologists for the Development of people’s lives

Social life is too complex and too exciting to be left within any single discipline. Consequently, bring together anthropologists, biologists, linguists, psychologists, sociologists and methodologists whose methods and theories cross individual social science disciplines; examines issues of central concern to socio-cultural anthropology, medical anthropology, comparative education, behavioural biology, language and thought, cultural and Developmental psychology. In addressing issues, highlight shifting categories such as gender, race, class, age, sexuality, and ability.

Anthropologists are aware of the wealth of human societies, and their diverse ways of empowering people and providing for their basic needs, including a sense of community. While all human beings have certain basic needs, including clean air and clean water, meaningful work and a decent living standard, great inequalities exist both within and between nation states. Thus an anthropologist would ask of any proposed Development program whether it will decrease inequality and provide more of what is needed for the whole population, or less. Projected increases in world population imply a need for more food than is currently produced; the problem of hunger is much more a matter of unequal distribution than of supply.

8. Applied context of Development Anthropology

Applied uses of anthropology outside the academy are becoming increasingly popular in the public sector, industry and non-governmental organisations in these contexts, combined with the increasing availability and accessibility of technologies, methodologies and representations are already in use.

Anthropologists contribute significantly to interdisciplinary fields such as international studies and ethnic and gender studies, and some work in academic research centres. Outside the university, anthropologists work in government agencies, private businesses, community organizations, museums, independent research institutes, service organizations, the media; and others work as independent consultants and research staff for agencies such as the Centres for Disease Control, UNESCO, World Health Organization, and World Bank. More than half of all anthropologists now work in organizations outside the university. Their work may involve building research partnerships, assessing economic needs, evaluating policies, developing new educational programs, recording little-known community histories, providing health services, and other socially relevant activities. Addressing social and cultural consequences of natural disasters, equitable access to limited resources, and human rights at the global level; these domains reflect the many significant issues and questions that anthropologists engage today, their areas of employment, the locations around the world where they do research, and their commitment to using research results to improve lives.

With the recent increase in use of technologies there is much wider access by anthropologists working both in and outside the academy. Simultaneously the use of anthropological methods of research and representation is now more prevalent.

Summary

Anthropology is a word-driven discipline; anthropologists sometimes find themselves involved with the research and thinking of professional makers and scholars from other disciplines. Anthropologists are problem solvers. They solve problems drawing upon the cultural context for clues about how to address a problem in ways that will make sense to the people of that culture. Today, hundreds of anthropologists hold full time positions that allow them to apply their expertise in government agencies, nonprofits and for profit organizations, and international agencies. Applied anthropologists can be medical anthropologists investigate the complex interactions among human health, nutrition, social environment and cultural beliefs and practices.

•  The increasing research methods across the social sciences and humanities ·
•  The growth in popularity of the methodology and object of analysis within mainstream anthropology and applied anthropology ·
•  The growing interest in ‘anthropology of the senses’ and Development anthropology ·
•  The Development of new visual technologies that allow anthropologists to work in new ways.

Also Development anthropologists apply their expertise to the solutions of practical human problems especially in the developing world Development anthropologists provide information about communities that help agencies adapt projects to local conditions and local needs. To do research and collect information about particular cultures, cultural anthropologists conduct fieldwork. Fieldworkers ordinarily move into the community so that they can live in close contact with the people. If practical they communicate in the local language—they learn the local language or use translators. Daily interactions with the members of a community provide anthropologists with firsthand experiences that yield insight and information that could not be gained any other way.

The Development Anthropology offers a groundbreaking examination of Developments within the field to define how it might advance empirically, methodologically and theoretically, and cement a central place in academic study both within anthropology and across disciplines.