32 Developmental Anthropology: Definition and concept

Meenal Dhall and Peteneinuo Rulu

epgp books

 

 

 

Contents:

 

1.      Introduction

2.      History of development anthropology

3.      Concept of Development Anthropology

4.      Development parameters

5.      Application of development

6.      Development and social policy

7.      Development and ideology

8.      Implications of Development for People’s Lives

 

Learning Objectives:

 

To know about:

1.      Emergence of development anthropology

2.      Meaning and concept of development anthropology

3.      Different developmental parameters

4.      Application of development

5.      Implications of Development for people’s lives

 

1. Introduction

 

Anthropology as we all know is the holistic study of men. Considering the holistic nature of anthropology, development anthropology is a sub branch of anthropology and can be defined as the application of anthropological perspectives to the multidisciplinary branch of developmental studies. It takes international development and international aid as primary objects. In anthropology, the term development refers to the social act made by different agents who are trying to transform the economic, technical, political and social life especially in underprivileged, formerly colonized regions. Development anthropologists simultaneously evaluate and contribute to projects and institutions that create and administer Western projects that seek to improve the economic wellbeing of the most marginalized, and to eliminate poverty. Development Anthropology involves the transfer of technology, funding, and proficiency from countries of the industrialized through multinational, governmental, and nongovernmental organizations and progressively by private-sector corporations to poor and undeveloped nations. With researches on the field, anthropologist can describe, analyze, reason and understand the different actions of development that took ,and take place in a given place. The various influences on the local population, environment, society, and economy are to be observed.

 

2. History of development anthropology

 

Developmental anthropology is a value-explicit, extended role approach in applying anthropological knowledge. Together with action anthropology, it illustrates the post-World War II shift from the more or less exclusively value-implicit approaches that has subjugated applied anthropology previously. Like action anthropology the approach and the process has both scientific and developmental aims but its basic concept and approaches were somewhat different. Glynn Cochrane in 1971 proposed development anthropology as a new field for practitioners interested in a profession outside academia. Given the growing difficulty of development aid, Cochrane suggested that graduates needed to prepare themselves to work in interdisciplinary settings.

 

The emergence of developmental anthropology as an academically acceptable sub-field dates only from the 1980s although some anthropologists were involved in the immediate post-World War II period of decolonization. The process of accelerated incorporation of formalized countries into the world economic system saw an increasing involvement of social anthropologist in the final quarter of 20th century. Thayer Scudder, Michael Horowitz, and David Brokensha established an Institute for Development Anthropology in the late 1970 at the State University of New York at Binghamton which played an influential role in the expansion of this branch of the discipline.

 

By the 1980s and 1990s, development anthropology began to be extensively used in the private sector where corporate social responsibility and issues ranging from resettlement and human rights to microenterprise are now consistently addressed by systematic social assessment as an integral part of investment evaluation.

 

In 21st century, most graduate departments of anthropology in the United States, Great Britain, and France incorporated at least one specialist in the application of anthropological theory and methods, mainly those of political ecology, to the achievement of an economic development that is also justifiable, environmentally sustainable, culturally diverse, and socially just.

 

Larger numbers of development anthropologists are employed outside of academia, by government aid agencies, the World Bank, United Nations agencies, and various nongovernmental organizations such as OXFAM, World Union for the Conservation of Nature, and CARE. Over time, anthropologists have moved from being marginal members of the teams to being team leaders, responsible for declaring that the work of all technical consultants is socially sound.

 

3. Concept of Development Anthropology

 

Development is a value based term and the term is valuable because it is used to distinguish the developed, developing and underdeveloped or to lift the weaker sections and underdeveloped areas. The concept of development considers three main positions which anthropologist takes into account. Firstly, those of the antagonistic observer, where they critically examine both the ideas of development and the motives of those who seek to promote it.

 

Secondly, reluctant participation due to institutional financial crunch and livelihood opportunities has led some anthropologist to offer their involvement and services to policy makers and developmental organizers. The last and long-standing custom is in which anthropologist have attempted to combine their community or agency level communications with people at the level of study by acting as a facilitator for marginalized or poor in the developing world.

 

Development anthropology is based on the concept that there are communities which are much more advanced and industrialized than the others and the approach implies that better communities can be designed and achieved. Defined technically, developmental anthropology is a means of bringing about in the net amount and breadth of delivering of certain basic human values through research-based participation and interference in a community.

 

The impact of development has divided human groups, regions and nations into three categories namely, developed, developing and underdeveloped. The division of such categories is made based on various criterions such as income, education, health, sanitations, housing, drinking water etc. For instance, in India the forward castes are placed under developed categories, backward castes are being placed under developing category and STs and SCs are being placed in underdeveloped category. Similarly, in case of region or state cities like Delhi, Kolkata, Mumbai etc. are grouped into first world, other cities into second world and towns and villages represent third world.

 

4. Development parameters

 

Various parameters are taken into consideration for defining and judging development anthropology. The main parameters taken into account are:

 

i. Economic parameters: Economic development plays an important role in development of a community. An individual, family or nation whose income level is said to be very high comes under the category of developed ones. Countries with very low percentage of those below poverty line is said to be a developed one. The factors that determine the economic parameters of a nation are per capita income, GDP, GNP, NI etc.

 

ii. Social parameters: Social development is one of the parameters of development. Nations where social prosperity is found is termed as a developed one. Some of the major criteria where social prosperity is taken into account are peace, tolerance, cooperation, help, duty, responsibility, brotherhood, enjoyment of status, rights etc.

 

iii. Cultural parameters: Cultural development, prosperity or achievement is one of the developmental parameters. It takes into account the achievement in the form of art, dance, craft, music, drama, song, hospitality etc.

 

iv. Political parameters: Political parameters are also considered to be one of the developmental parameters. Strong political institutions like sovereignty, democracy, military force, modern war weapons and foreign policy are some of the main attributes of political development.

 

v. Health parameters: Health is one of the most important parameters of development. Those nation with well-developed health care system, good nutrition, safe drinking water, clean house and environment falls under the category of a developed one.

 

vi. Education parameters: Education is one of the significant and fundamental parameters of development. The literacy rate of a nation determines the level of development as it makes people aware of the human rights, health deficiencies, exploitations, oppressions, deprivation, communicable diseases, awareness, medicines and various developmental programs. It also helps them access to various developmental programs and opportunities available.

 

vii. Communication parameters: In the absence of communication, development does not even come into the picture. Communication is therefore an important developmental parameter. Communication is of various types such as, transport through road, railways, waterways and airways, telephone communications, media communications like television, internet communication etc.

 

5. Application of development

 

While anthropological studies evaluate the Western assumptions and political context of development projects, anthropologists also refer and work within aid institutions in the construction and implementation of development projects. While economists look at collective measures like gross national product and per capita income, as well as measures of income distribution and economic inequality in a society, the anthropologists provide a more fine grained study of the qualitative data behind these numbers such as the nature of the social groups involved and the social implication of the composition of income. Thus, development anthropologists often deal with evaluating the important qualitative aspects of development sometimes ignored by an economic approach.

 

Some of the areas where development is applied are:

 

i. Social area: Various social areas of development include child development, women development, aged development, youth development, OBCs development, STs development, SCs development etc.

 

ii. Economic area: the economic area of development includes areas such as irrigation, horticulture, agriculture, industrial, cottage industries, small scale industries, mining, labor, life stock rearing etc.

 

iii. Cultural area: The cultural area of development includes art in the form of music, dance, song, dramas, plays, sports, hospitality etc.

 

iv. Political area: The political area of development includes the development of areas such as panchayat, military force, court, district, commissionaires, state and nation.

 

v. Health and Hygiene: In this area it includes the development of various health facilities such as sub-health centers, health centers, district hospital, medical colleges and hospitals, ample medicines, safe drinking water, proper sanitation, clean environment etc.

 

vi. Communication area: The communication area of development includes the improvement and development of areas such as railways, roadways, airways, waterways, electronic media such as, telephone, internet television etc.

 

vii. Fuel area: The development of fuel area includes the development of renewable as well as non-renewable resources such as biogas, natural gas, petroleum, solar energy, wind energy, electric energy, hydro energy, atomic energy etc.

 

6. Development and Social Policy

 

Social policy, a comprising concern for human development, is changing since   the beginning of the 2lst century at an exponentially fast pace and now even the most isolated people have been tied into the global economy. This has been achieved due to the increase in control of third-world nations by the developed countries. Unlike olden days developed nations control indirectly through economic means. It is no longer shaped by the local community alone but it is also shaped by international, national, or local elites or groups as well as agencies such as the World Bank, the various regional Banks, the International Monetary Fund, World Trade Organization and the agreements under it such as GATT and NAFTA, the European Union, and large multinational corporations such as Monsanto and Cargill.

 

The interconnected dimensions of the globalization processes as they affect human development are experienced differently by varying sectors of the world’s population. Government leaders and free-market economists appear to believe that no government can pursue full employment and protect all of its citizens’ basic social and economic rights, and that these must be abandoned in the name of growth. The large variation in the productive and reproductive activities in particular national contexts, combined with the intersections of structures of inequality such as race, class, caste, ethnicity and gender, act to create radically different social, economic, political, cultural and experiential realities for different segments of the world’s population.

 

7. Development and ideology

 

The critical linkages between ideology and public policy mentioned cannot be ignored which 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 principles of those making policy and those carrying it out have had profound effects on human life. The ideology of development specialists, most economists, and people in planning, especially those with a middle-class background or accepting western values, are different from that of those making policy.

 

The ideology being referred to consists of a set of closely interrelated beliefs. The most important belief is that growth is the most important and domineering factor for countries or regions to eradicate poverty. It is supported by a belief that boundless growth is a real possibility for all, and an equation of growth with a 19th century view which links western society and culture with progress.

 

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 persistent increase of their economies by removing all hurdles to trade and investment. This is said to be the only way in which poor countries, or poor sections within countries, can ever improve.

 

There is a belief that international trade can only have positive results for most people, and this belief has been deeply inculcated in the minds of influential political leaders. These beliefs often ignore reality to the level that they do not recognize the existence of poor communities which suffer from rising unemployment or under employment, increasing income gaps, and increasing poverty. This orientation ignores the influence of these forces on economically vulnerable families over the world, including most vulnerable groups, women and children.

 

The undisputed view that globalization is inevitable, and that world trade is the only way the world is likely to be deeply rooted in development institutions, even in the third world. This belief has been articulated by a number of planners and economists, both in the United States and in India. It has been uncritically acknowledged and recognized into the discourse of economic, political and social discussions at all levels, and serves to disempower immense numbers of people.

 

8. Implications of Development for People’s Lives

 

Development is considered valuable as it is expected to make people’s life better, comfortable and provide improved quality of life. It is closely associated with the welfare of the people. Every individual require their basic needs some of which includes:

  • Clean air
  • Sufficient clean water to meet a range of functions, including drinking, bathing, irrigation, cleaning dwellings, utensils, etc.
  • A well balanced and nutritious diet based on human needs such as vitamins, proteins, carbohydrates, and micro- nutrients in forms that are culturally appropriate;
  • Adequate clothing suitable to the climate and the social setting;
  • Shelter adequate with cultural outlooks, the physical environment, and the political conditions;
  • Meaningful work, which provides a role and status in society;
  • Equal access to modern and advanced health care and the possibility of choice;
  • The right to freedom of expression, restricted only by the need to avoid harm to others;
  • The right for each sub-sector of the population to mortality and morbidity indices that are not wholly different from those of the well-off.

    Summary

 

Anthropology has managed to influence development in many ways from the recruitment of anthropologist in various fields in both government as well as non-government sectors. Developmental anthropology has both scientific and development goals. It aims to bring about increase in the net amount and breadth of distribution of certain basic human values through research-based participant intervention in a community.

 

Development anthropology is the wider sharing of the context of basic value categories of which these categories are conceptualized and consist of power, respect, enlightenment, wealth, skill, well-being, affection, health and rectitude. Anthropological contributions in the field of development have been seen to have an immense impact on the development of a nation or a region. The development of intervention techniques within anthropology is the most striking characteristics of development.

 

It helps to enumerate the areas in a community based level where there is a gap so that information regarding the community will help agencies or government policies adapt projects to local conditions and needs. Anthropology is deeply rooted in field work and close community interaction and therefore the agencies will be able to obtain firsthand information regarding the needs and improvements required which can only be provided by anthropologist.

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References

  • Blim M. 1998. Some requirements for a progressive 21st century Anthropology. Critique of Anthropology. 18(3):79-93.
  • Glynn C 1971.  Development Anthropology. Oxford University Press. New York.
  • Glynn C. 1980. Policy studies and Anthropology. Current Anthropology. 21(4)
  • https://www.britannica.com/print/article/27505
  • Lewis D. 2005. Anthropology and development: the uneasy relationship. London: LSE research online.
  • Mencher JP. Anthropology and Human Development Sustainable human development in the twenty- first century. vol. 1
  • Pandey G. 2008. Developmental Anthropology. Concept publishing company. New Delhi
  • Willigen JV. 1993. Applied Anthropology: An Introduction. Bergin and Garvey. USA

    Suggested readings

  • Crewe E and Axelby R. 2013. Anthropology and development: Culture, Mortality and Politics in a globalised world. Cambridge University Press. New York
  • Glynn C 1971.  Development Anthropology. Oxford University Press. New York.
  • Malhotra R. 1992. (ed) Anthropology of Development (commemoration volume in the honor of Professor IP Singh). Mittal publications. New Delhi
  • Nolan R. 2002. Development Anthropology: Encounters in the real world. Westview press. USA